As the Prime Minister yesterday launched yet another anti-family violence initiative, more babies were being born into non-working homes.Every year thousands of babies are born on to new or existing benefits. Many of these babies will join the ranks of the most at-risk children in New Zealand.
Last year Work and Income acknowledged that New Zealand has a very high rate of family violence and that many victims are beneficiaries. Hence service centres are an "excellent" place to identify victims.
Instead of acting rationally and questioning to what extent easy access to benefits actually adds to violence by facilitating dysfunctional lifestyles, the best plan of action the government can offer is to develop ever more resources to fight the growing incidence.
An honest appraisal of what role welfare has played in breaking down committed and independent families would be a far more valuable exercise than anything else proposed to date.
There is a clear connection between welfare dependence and family violence. It is a vain hope that the second will diminish while the first is allowed to continue.
1 comment:
At the risk of repeating myself for the upteenth time, what do the quangos like the Families Commission, people Cindy Kiro and her acolytes, doing to help solving this dreadful problem. Bugger all!
Other than collecting their pay every month, these parasites could be sent home and nobody would notice.
Individual, not collective, responsibility is at the heart of the solution of this complex issue.
Post a Comment