Child poverty an "act of whanau violence"

That's according to Green Party Ikaroa-Rawhiti candidate Marama Davidson.

“Child poverty is an act of whānau violence perpetuated by the government,” she says.
“What would be normally do to abusers? We would remove them.”

Did she mean 'perpetrated' or 'perpetuated'? Or both? The release could have benefited from some proof reading, but I'd answer it with a question.

Why is it this government's fault that so many (Maori) children live in poverty?

It seems to me that for decades many Maori have been happy to use welfare as a staple for child rearing regardless of whether or not jobs are available. Happy to use welfare to support their desire to live in tribal homelands. Happy to accept an income from the government that is equal to any they could achieve without educational qualifications or work skills.

Over a third of Maori babies will be on welfare by the end of their birth year. Did the government force that state of affairs on them?

The only way I could remotely agree with this pathetic claim was if the current government was perpetuating the benefit system without reform.

Late fathering a risk

This is very interesting. From the NZ Herald today:

A study of more than two million people in Sweden has found that those with older fathers faced a higher risk of psychiatric problems, autism and attention disorders.
Compared to people whose fathers were between the ages of 20 and 24 at the time of their birth, those with dads 45 or older were 25 times more likely to have bipolar disorder, researchers said in JAMA Psychiatry, a journal of the American Medical Association.

More

Presumeably the reserachers controlled for other factors and it's a huge cohort which has been used in other studies.

"We were shocked by the findings," said Brian D'Onofrio, lead author and associate professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University, Bloomington.

"The specific associations with paternal age were much, much larger than in previous studies," said D'Onofrio, who collaborated with researchers at the Karolinska Institute.

Older paternal age was linked to a greater likelihood of schizophrenia, suicide attempts and substance abuse problems in offspring, as well as failing grades and lower IQ scores.

While there is birth data for the age of mothers in NZ, I am not immediately aware of data relating to the age of fathers, and how rapidly it is trending up. I'll have a look around. But I doubt older fathers would, for instance, be a factor in the high rate of Maori suicide for instance, because Maori tend to have their children younger and I am assuming in general the fathers are also younger.

"...the Maori suicide rate is still more than 80 per cent higher than that of non-Maori at 28.7 per 100,000 in the 15-24 age group compared to 15.6 per 100,000."

You might also make a leap and speculate that youngest, especially after-thought children may be at greater risk. Most men don't suddenly start fathering at 45 or older.

From the Encyclopedia of NZ regarding 21st century parents:

 The average age of fathers of newborn babies was 33 years, approximately four years older than their own fathers when they were born. One baby in 100 had a father who was over 50 years old.

Why is Whyte being ostracised?

As the knee jerk reactions to Jamie Whyte's comments about incest mount, I get more frustrated.

He offered an opinion.

That opinion has also been sought by the Law Commission.

So it is OK for the Law Commission to discuss possibly out-dated laws relating to forbidden marriage and incest but not a prospective MP?

Makes no sense to me.

Predictable witch-hunt begins on Jamie Whyte

It was never going to take long for the media to find Something in new ACT leader Jamie Whyte's past writings to sensationalise.

New Act Leader Jamie Whyte is standing by his comments that incestuous relationships between consenting adults should not be illegal and says it would be "intellectually corrupt" of him not to be honest when asked such questions.

Of course he is right. And in a modern world where so many more people produce children casually, where there are so many broken or unknown familial relationships, where the chance that related people (unaware of that status) may enter into sexual relationships, the idea that incest is illegal and punishable by the state is inhumane and hopelessly outdated.

Self-serving journalism

Chris Trotter writes about the appointment of Matt McCarten as David Cunliffe's Chief-of-Staff:

Since the departure of Helen Clark and her Chief-of-Staff, Heather Simpson, the Labour Leader’s Office has lacked what American political journalists call a “junkyard dog”. Someone steeped in the values of the movement and who knows where all the important bodies are buried (often because he or she put them there!). A bruiser and a brawler who will frighten the Bejesus out of anyone who so much as looks sideways at the party leader.

New Zealand currently possesses only two match-fit junkyard dogs, Matt McCarten and Richard Prebble. And isn’t it the most delicious of historical coincidences that both of them have been recalled to the electoral fray at the same time? Both men can call on extensive personal networks and both possess extraordinarily campaigning and negotiating skills.

How convenient. Trotter says that only two currently exist. Do you think he would have written that last week? Before Prebble's return was public knowledge? This is only a "historical coincidence" of Trotter's invention because he wrote the context for it.

Given Matt McCarten’s brilliance as an organiser, a negotiator and an enforcer, it would have been lunacy on Cunliffe’s part not to appoint him Chief-of-Staff.

Well, see, I've not a jot of Trotter's knowledge of inside political workings. But again this development is painted as a convenient yet triumphal fait accompli. McCarten was just waiting in the wings to save Labour. There's almost a touch of theatre about it.

(But Trotter waxing lyrical can't hold a candle to Bomber who has succumbed to the rapture of musical grandeur. He can hear the anthem playing. Arise Messiah Matt.)

Given Matt McCarten’s brilliance as an organiser, a negotiator and an enforcer, it would have been lunacy on Cunliffe’s part not to appoint him Chief-of-Staff. - See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/02/26/lunacy-or-brilliance-cunliffe-appoints-matt-mccarten-as-his-chief-of-staff/#sthash.u9fTwqRQ.dpuf

Since the departure of Helen Clark and her Chief-of-Staff, Heather Simpson, the Labour Leader’s Office has lacked what American political journalists call a “junkyard dog”. Someone steeped in the values of the movement and who knows where all the important bodies are buried (often because he or she put them there!). A bruiser and a brawler who will frighten the Bejesus out of anyone who so much as looks sideways at the party leader.
New Zealand currently possesses only two match-fit junkyard dogs, Matt McCarten and Richard Prebble. And isn’t it the most delicious of historical coincidences that both of them have been recalled to the electoral fray at the same time? Both men can call on extensive personal networks and both possess extraordinarily campaigning and negotiating skills.
- See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/02/26/lunacy-or-brilliance-cunliffe-appoints-matt-mccarten-as-his-chief-of-staff/#sthash.u9fTwqRQ.dpuf

Raising Super age inevitable

Good to see ACT challenging National over the Super eligibility age BUT they can expect a fight from National who are using this paper as ammunition. During Tim Fooke's NewstalkZB hour with the PM last week Key kept quoting all the good things about NZ Super. For instance it only costs 4% of GDP

That the forward projections are much lower than in other countries.

That it's simple.

He also maintained that moving the age up wouldn't save much.

I disagree. It would ultimately save $1-2 billion annually depending on how much the age went up. The largest proportional expenditure is in the lowest age groups.

But here's the kicker right at the end of the paper:

  The generations coming into retirement - let alone those already there - have been advantaged by being able to support NZ Superannuation from a much wider base (relative to recipients) than will increasingly be the case over the next three decades. It follows that changing demography and social conditions may bring about circumstances in which parametric change to NZ Superannuation and/or a review of KiwiSaver rules will obtain some strong degree of consensus. Can one envisage a time when "68 at 68" would seem eminently sensible, just as "65 at 65" does now?

I believe the "consensus" already exists. Remember the retirement age was set at 65 in 1898. Yes, a few people are still pretty worn out by age 65 but they could be supported by a disability benefit in the interim.

(I'm not going to blog about the issue of  pension reform beyond this aspect. In election year it's primarily about what's possible in the immediate future. But there are a host of other schemes ACT could be looking at that would appear to better characterise individual responsibility. See Europe alone).

Colin James on ACT and the 2014 election

Worth a read.

 A battered fringe party hoping for rescue 

Don Brash has written a memoir. It should be quite a read, given his trajectory, from Presbyterian left believer who found classical-liberal economic truth doing his doctorate in Australia, to the World Bank, merchant banker, failed National candidate and kiwifruit king, to Reserve Bank governor, National leader and an ACT takeover. 

Brash is an almost unfailingly courteous man who sometimes does discourteous things. Rodney Hide's summary execution as ACT leader by a Brash cabal three years ago was a blinder: a takeover by Nationalists of an allied fringe party. 

That gave Epsom a former National minister who never got the catechism quite right and did no better for votes and arguably worse than Hide would have. National's candidate, a biographer of Brash, was nearer ACT in his instincts than the official ACT candidate.

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Are thousands of people being denied benefits?

Guest post over on Whale Oil today.