Party pill palaver

Another senseless ban passed in parliament last night.

The bill passed 109 to 11 with only the Green, Maori and Act parties opposing.

Thanks National, the party of individual freedom and choice - huge joke.

And what is it with the contradictory, contrary Greens who want to tell us what we can and can't consume in the foodline but not in the recreational drugline.

The Maori Party??? Hone Harawira talks convincingly about the dangers of prohibition creating black markets and crime but wants to ban cigarettes.

How I long for some consistency and principle from the big house on the hill.

(BTW - Who abstained? 11 should be 12)

Aboriginal apology rejected

John Howard, backed by Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson, says Rudd's apology was wrong. A later generation cannot apologise for the actions of a former and the act of apologising risks the 'box ticked' mentality whereby nothing else gets done.

"I think we persevered for too long with the notion of separate development. I think the only way the indigenous people of Australia can get what we call a 'fair go' is for them to become part of the mainstream of the community and get the benefits and opportunities available from mainstream Australian society, whilst recognising … the particular and special place of the indigenous culture in the life of the country," he said.

I agree. The same sentiment should hold for Maori and other indigenous people.

"Children don't come first"

This is a heartbreaker and in my experience the 'authorities' are hitting the nail on the head.

The case has highlighted concerns held by child agencies about child neglect.

Hamilton-based Child Protection Studies chief executive Anthea Simcock said neglect was one of the most under-estimated and under-reported types of child abuse.

"Fifteen years ago if you said `child abuse' everyone would have thought `sex abuse'. In the last seven or eight years we've had so many reports of child death Coral Burrows, James Whakaruru ... and the last year or two people have become more aware of abuse suffered when witnessing family violence, the emotional or physical neglect of being in the way."

Mrs Simcock said with neglect it wasn't what people did, rather "it's them not doing things". "It's often because of ignorance, often because of pressures on their own life and often because children don't come first."

Without getting into discussions about children's emotional needs across their ages, very young children must come first. They are incredibly physically vulnerable and need at least one individual dedicated to caring for them around the clock. That means knowing exactly where they are and what they are doing.

This instance wasn't just neglect. It was gross neglect. And I have seen too much of it. Children given less attention and love than many would give their pets. Readers of this blog (as I do) will take for granted the care and attention they received as babies and toddlers. That's as it should be. And the habit is passed on.

Unfortunately bad habits are also transmitted through generations. People who do not understand the commitment that comes with a child should never be encouraged and incentivised to have babies. But in New Zealand they are. And that's crazy and tragic.

No justification for junket

I cannot come up with any reasonable justification for or defence of this.

Are we more upwardly mobile?

Colin James has a good column in the NZ Herald today in which he argues that upward mobility is important for sustained economic growth.

In his February 7 speech, Cullen argued that Labour's workplace regulation and "fairness" spending in the 2000s enhanced economic growth. He is premature. The boom was in large part debt binge-fuelled. We have yet to live through the bust.

A big reducer of inequality has been the transition of large numbers from benefits to jobs, more a factor of business growth and, in part, 1990s policies than Cullen's spending. Societal changes are likely to affect economic growth rates only after a lag.

There is no denying the movement from benefits to jobs but let's qualify which benefits. The dole. Yes. Sickness and Invalid - some but newcomers or returners have added to overall substantial and steady growth. Although numbers on the DPB have been dropping there are still well over one hundred thousand single parents reliant on welfare. To put that into some sort of context there are just over half a million NZ families with dependent children. Around 22 percent depend on welfare. The vast majority of these are single parents. In low socio-economic schools children from welfare homes can make up the majority.

The left constantly harps on about the growing gap between haves and have-nots as if the greedy 'rich' are somehow to blame. The gap (which is more about values than income) in NZ society is growing because poor, predominantly brown children are growing up without a working parent. All they know is WINZ the provider. They are concentrated in poor areas and the likes of my kids have no experience of them and vice versa. I cast my mind back to growing up in 60s NZ when most families were headed by two parents. My closest friend's parents were Pacific and American and they both worked at General Motors. They lived in a small house which was home to 9 children. It was a different experience to mine and I spent much of my time there. The oldest daughter got pregnant and the child was brought up in the family. Today she would almost certainly have left home and gone on welfare. In other words in the 60s this family produced upwardly mobile children. Today it might not.

Because NZ society has become increasingly segregated due to the growth of one parent families on the back of welfare. Naenae in the sixties was a pleasant suburb with a modern shopping centre. We would visit it most weeks when I lived in Avalon. Now it is to be avoided. Naenae Work and Income is nanny to over a thousand single parents. Sure, many will be struggling to do their best, living in one of the few areas their budget can stretch to. But they have to send their kids to schools where dysfunctional kids make everybody's learning that much harder. Again harder to get an education. Harder to maximise opportunity. Harder to get ahead.

The poorest NZ families are those on welfare. Too many are there by choice, either consciously or sub-consciously. The days of blaming unemployment are over. It is welfare that has driven the re-emergence of a class-based society with a large group stuck at the bottom with poor prospects of being more productive than their parents. With easily available and relatively generous welfare, the left has achieved exactly what they set out to destroy.

PM apologises

This is good. The PM is apologising for the last Labour government. She is reported on NewstalkZB news saying Roger Douglas ran rampant in the last Labour administration, did things he shouldn't have, sold things he shouldn't have and then went off to ACT. Yes. The PM can obviously see value in publicising Roger Douglas and ACT at National's cost.

Not being left doesn't make you right

Deborah Coddington has called for ACT to become the "hard-ass" party. They should select candidates that don't mind being called right-wing because the attempt to explain ACT through the 'liberal' tag failed.

The trouble is I do mind being labelled right-wing. Not being left-wing doesn't make one right-wing. And extreme right-wing is synonymous with racist and redneck which is why ACT shouldn't accept the label.

But Deborah makes a few suggestions for potential candidates, one being Peter Douglas. From what I remember of Douglas he was one of the rare Maori prepared to speak against welfare. As head of Maori Strategy for CYFS he called for a review of the DPB in 2001 saying, "I think we should be thinking about the damage that those benefits do to some communities. Because it takes away the need for ambition, it takes away a sense of responsibility and sets young people on a trail of entitlement.”

Having a candidate like Douglas would give those Maori who want to vote based on race a real alternative. But he shouldn't be there for that reason primarily. He should be there for the ideas and the ability to implement them.

I was also interested in her comment that Rodney opposed the 'liberal' tag because "it wasn't true". I take this to mean that he thought at the time ACT was still a mix of liberal and conservative elements. It doesn't follow that he should drop it now.

A serious chip on the shoulder

A couple of years back I read a rather raw and extreme speech which I hoped reflected a personal paranoia and not reality. Here is an excerpt;

This place is fucking appalling – men tell you what to do, men make you feel bad – men for the benefit of men shape the system. As students we are objectified – I have been one of the people who have made jokes about “easy first years” and I regret that – I did not do the sisterhood any favours. The reason why I made these jokes is because I bowed to covert peer pressure. I picked up on the language and I existed to be liked by men and envied by women but I was never going to be a fuckable first year so I went to student politics and that made me attractive to a whole other group of men – who run the place, who attack me, who judge me on whether they would fuck me or not.

University is a sad story for women and we don’t fight against it because we ignore it or see it as tough luck cause its normal.

Date rape, gang rape, sexual violence are all a norm here – it’s a joke because men make it so and they are the blokes, the boys club and they are putting us down and taking our jobs.

The place in question was Auckland University. The speaker ex-student President Kate Sutton. I mention this because I have noticed Kate is standing for Labour in Epsom. My knowledge of Epsom extends only to the fact that Rodney Hide is their current MP.

It appears Labour are not seriously entertaining changing that.

Slack

I wanted to read Louisa Wall's maiden speech so went to the Labour Party website. No speech there. In fact she isn't even listed as an MP. Anne Hartley is though.

If Labour see Wall as a draw card for Maori they might need to start supporting her. Then again she may be about to experience the shortest parliament career ever. Can anybody think of a shorter one?

Pot calling kettle.....

And further on education, this is a gem. Rick Giles has locked horns with Stratford High School over the matter of blog accessibility. He received the following e-mail;

===== Original Message From =====
when you are able to determine that you are addressing the Principal of a school about a principle in practise perhaps we can take you seriously.
Regards
Diane ####
Principal’s PA

Notice the delicious irony in this piece of lofty high-handedness?

Paying for problems

The failure of the decile rating/funding system for schools is highlighted yet again by this report which shows one in five primary school children is anti-social, yet at the poorest schools the figure rises to over one in three. The problem is apparently that these schools are not adequately funded to deal with children with behavioural problems. I don't know why not. We have just received a bill for $350 for our local state school 'donation'. In fact this is the subsidy we pay to poor schools who get twice as much funding as ours. And still want more.

In any event it is the home lives of these children which lie at the heart of the problem. I would bet you anything you like that a large majority have come out of dysfunctional families created on the back of welfare. Which we also subsidised. That's the Kiwi way. We don't pay tax to solve problems. We pay it to create them.

'Menacing' but not 'dangerous'

This is a typical 'being seen to do something' farce.

In Palmerston North "There were about 100 dog attacks on living things each year, about 12 of those were on humans."

But council's head of environmental protection services Wayne Jameson said the fact the city had no dangerous dogs was a reflection of "very good dog behaviour".

And so...No one should have to pay extra for their dog registration because there are no dangerous dogs in Palmerston North.

I know. Some days you have to pinch yourself.

A strange case of mistaken identity

I can understand the mistake being made with a kitten or puppy but what gives here?

More teenage single parents on welfare than officially exist

I wonder how many people tell porkies to the Census taker? For some time I have been trying to get a figure for the number of mothers aged 15-19 at March 2006. The figure I have been provided with is 4,107. I have argued with Statistics New Zealand that this is too low given there are usually more births to 15-19 year-olds in one year alone.

Anyway, after double-checking, I am assured that is the figure established through the process of self-indentification. Of these mothers 2,586 said they were single. I pointed out to my contact that at March 2006 there were 2,894 18 and 19 year-olds on the DPB and a further 6-700 16 and 17 year-olds on the EMA. So roughly three and a half thousand teenage single parents are on a benefit for single mothers yet, according to the Census, only two and a half thousand teenage single parents officially exist??

One can only assume the 'missing' 1,000 are telling Work and Income they are single (to qualify for welfare) but telling the Census taker they have a partner.

(In case you are wondering there were only around 40-50 male 18-19 year-old single parents on a benefit so that doesn't account for the difference.)

No silver bullet

Although I appreciate the need to improve saving habits among Kiwis I do not approve of using taxpayer money as an incentive. I don't have a KiwiSaver account. But I know people who oppose it in principle who have nevertheless taken advantage of the 'free' money. Apparently I am an idiot not to.

A study from Waikato Management School has shown however that as a scheme to incentivise saving it may not be very efficient.

The study found between only 9 and 19 per cent of KiwiSaver cash was new savings. "The rest is either reshuffling among existing saving and debt by KiwiSaver members, or else taxpayer and employer transfers which decrease national saving elsewhere," Prof Gibson said. "When the deadweight loss of tax incentives is taken into account, along with the administration, compliance and implementation costs, then KiwiSaver is likely to lower rather than lift national saving."

Great. Another grand redistribution plan failing to achieve its purpose. Another Labour policy supported by National.

The "lump of lead"

Chris Trotter so has the knives out for Helen Clark it is almost enough to make you feel some sympathy for her. Almost. But I don't see Helen as a figure who would appreciate my sympathy so I'd best save it for a more deserving cause.

Trotter writes in today's Dominion Post;

"....the government's catastrophic [poll] numbers are being driven by Ms Clark's unpopularity not the party's....she was Labour's greatest asset, the wind beneath its wings. She has now become the lump of lead on its back.....Miss Clark is no Bill Clinton: she cannot look her supporters in the eye and say,'I feel your pain.' At heart, the prime minister is a diligent and rather uninspiring policy wonk, who has never really understood that politics is not about the head, but the heart....Labour's caucus needs to get its head around this - and soon. Because the longer it delays replacing Ms Clark as leader, the more time it is allowing voters to convince themselves (if they have not already done so) that Mr Key is the prime minister they are looking for."

Are Trotter's assertions honest or are they merely part of some ploy to save the Left? It could be a bob each way. If voters really do vote with their emotions to the fore, then his constant kicking of Clark turns her into an underdog and don't Kiwis love an underdog. Alternatively if he spooks Labour MPs enough he might succeed in causing a change of leadership. There is a third scenario too. That nobody gives a rat's arse for what Trotter has to say on the matter.

Around the blogosphere you would have to be blind not to notice that many commentors religiously loathe Clark. They seem to be mostly men. Their obsession with her personal life and looks is very unpleasant to behold. I have never understood this viciousness. What Clark stands for - socialism - is well worthy of stout and sustained attack but getting in a lather over what Clark looks like, or sounds like for that matter, is a waste of energy.

My husband doubts Clark can come back now because that's just not what typically happens. Politically he has more nous than I. But I am wondering how useful history or precedent is, for this reason. Clark is a woman. She is a feminist. The first elected female Prime Minister. The last three decades of NZ politics has been so influenced by women that I can't ignore what their reaction to Clark's sudden unpopularity will be. Simply, I wouldn't discount the women's vote swinging in behind Helen (or the Greens, to shore her up.)

I won't vote for Clark, but I couldn't disrespect someone who does so based on her experience, intelligence and ability to hold her nerve. Unlike Trotter she won't be prematurely....panicking.

We wanna hold your hand

Work and Income are offering financial assistance to people affected by the drought. No doubt it will be strictly means-tested. If the drought results in people having no work then I guess the assistance is similar to the dole. Leaving aside any comment about what might be an improvement on our mandatory taxpayer-funded unemployment insurance scheme, I don't have much problem with genuinely warranted financial assistance.

BUT stress counselling???

Market research

For the next two weeks I will be having a painting sale at 25 Rimu St, Eastbourne. I was faced with the problem of what to do while captured in a shop all day, apart from meeting and talking to people. Working with oils and turps is too smelly and potentially messy in a confined space that does not belong to me. So I decided to bone up on my pastel drawing and offer pet portraits from photos. If necessary I can photograph the pet on the spot and download it to my laptop. I've produced these examples drawn from photos. Question:

How much to do you think is a reasonable price for one of these portraits given they take from 2 - 3 hours to complete? You can see the figure I have suggested but I tend to forget about tax etc (I am not registered for gst.)

Psychologists making sense

Now Deborah Morris asks us to give the anti-smacking law a chance in the NZ Herald. Notice like all of this law's advocates she insists on using the word 'hit' instead of 'smack'. I have never hit either of my children but I did, very occasionally, smack them or threaten to. I am prepared to concede there may have been alternatives but I am also sure that my children feel loved and secure. Which brings me to a piece which appears in the Dominion Post today but isn't on line. It reviews child psychologist Glen Stenhouse's book, You Don't Need To Smack.

The pleasant surprise is that Mr Stenhouse does not see anti-smacking legislation as an answer.

"Good parents object to the Government telling them how to parent and telling them what they can and can't do with their children in an area where they feel they're not doing anything to harm their children."

He believes that legislation isn't going to make any difference to the very small percentage of people who physically abuse their children.

Interestingly he talks about how parents have become so child-focussed they have created a situation where children are more assertive and challenging. Reading between the lines I think he believes children are over-parented.

"Parenting is not complicated. As long as kids have structure, and love and security and predictability in their lives, they will go with the flow."

Exactly. That's the problem for too many NZ children. They lack each or all of these things.

And speaking of sensible psychologists, the programmme with Nigel Latta about Taffy Hotene screened on TV last night was riveting.

Hotene's upbringing was appalling. The youngest of thirteen he was by all accounts horribly and frequently physically abused by parents and older siblings. He took to sleeping under the house to avoid the beatings.

But Nigel Latta doesn't just follow the psychological development of Hotene. He puts it into a moral context. He says (from memory) "We are right to feel sorry for that small child. But the little boy who went under the house never came out. I have dealt with people who have experienced similar in their lives and they never turned into selfish, calculating predators. There were people who were kind to Hotene along the way. He consciously and deliberately chose to murder Kylie Jones."

Thank goodness for some acknowledgement of self-determination for a change. There were too many people who thought they could change Hotene along the way. Marie Dyberg, for instance, thought that at a certain age there is always hope. A military style training course operator felt he was turning Hotene around until the police intervened. Latta thinks that they were being duped. Hotene could show a maverick and vulnerable side. He could also use that persona to lure victims.

Sadly giving physical expression to that 'hope' ultimately cost the life of a girl who, as Latta put it, was merely in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was always on the cards that Hotene's history of violence would escalate to murder.

Minimal sanctions imposed

In 2003 the Labour government introduced Personal Development and Employment Plans for DPB beneficiaries in place of work-testing. To increase the effectiveness of these plans case managers can use sanctions for non-compliance eg the beneficiary loses a percentage of their payment (although they are later recompensed the equivalent amount if they do comply). This table shows how many sanctions have been imposed.

The overall picture suggests to me that like any new regime, its administration progressively tapers off.

Last year there were only 32 sanctions imposed for a total of 98,000 beneficiaries. And in Auckland, where a third of beneficiaries live, there were zero. Auckland, coincidentally, is the worst performer in reducing benefit numbers. Nearly half of the Auckland region Work and Income Centres experienced a rise in DPB numbers during 2007. Clearly most people will by now have cottoned on that their PDE plans aren't worth the paper they are written on in terms of how diligently Work and Income will pursue them. No wonder a report written about their implementation found beneficiaries were binning them on the way out.