9 September, 2004

Parental witch-hunt will worsen child poverty

The Green Party is accusing the Government of punishing children for the 'sins' of their fathers through legislation to increase the penalties on single mothers who don't name the father of their child.

The Social Security (Social Assistance) Amendment Bill would increase the penalty by $6 per week.

"Mothers who don't name the father are already penalised $22 per week, per child," said Green Social Services spokesperson, Sue Bradford. "It means a mum who is already struggling to bring two kids up, but who doesn't feel able to name their father, will have $50 stripped from her family budget.

"The core Domestic Purposes Benefit (DPB) for a mother with two children is now $256.52 per week - strip $50 from that and it leaves just $206.52 to support three people.

"Who exactly are we punishing here? The unnamed fathers will remain untouched but the kids will pay the price of the Government's moral vendetta against their parents.

"Families will be increasingly forced to fall back on food banks and go further into debt. The children suffer from lack of decent food, housing and increased insecurity, with all the long-term educational and psychological impacts that brings.

"It is obscene to index gradations of deprivation to punish mothers and children for the sins of the fathers."

Sue Bradford also questioned the legislation's underlying premise that it is morally better to be dependent on a completely absent and uncaring father than on the State.

"Bringing up children on your own is a real and very important job," said Ms Bradford. "It is a very hard job, made harder if you're on your own and in poverty."

"We do support moves to encourage the naming of the father, but rather than penalising mothers and children we want more support for those already-vulnerable members of society and support widening the existing exemption regime to allow mothers made pregnant through violence and abuse are not further victimised."

"I believe Labour is succumbing once again to pressure from ACT and National as they did with the 'no go zones' in the Jobs Jolt," said Ms Bradford. "It's a competition for the votes of those who seek to demonise beneficiaries, and cast them as somehow morally inferior from the rest of society."

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>