Doing a DPB apprenticeship

In Australia Rupert Murdoch is railing against welfare dependency in the first of the Boyer Lectures.

Meanwhile, back across the ditch in God's Own, thousands of young people continue to embark on their welfare careers annually.

I asked a friend to guess how many young females had moved from being on the sickness benefit for pregnancy reasons, to the DPB last year. Without a pause she replied, "As many as moved from the dole to the sickness benefit a few months earlier."

Smart. When I put the same question to my husband he replied, "A hundred, hundred and fifty maybe."

"Try three thousand," I answered.

OK. I'm exaggerating. Actually it was 2,972.

Eighty percent were aged 24 or less. 51 percent were Maori.

This is not a safety net. This is a career choice. This is the DPB apprenticeship.