Government’s ‘child neglect’ options now open

Government’s ‘child neglect’ options now open for discussion

After almost two years in government, and five years after National claimed that failure to pay child support was tantamount to ‘child neglect’, the best National can do is a discussion document, says Labour Revenue spokesperson Stuart Nash.

“It is extraordinary that National should campaign so hysterically on this issue, and then be reduced to more talk after doing little or nothing in its first two years in office,” Stuart Nash said.

“In releasing his discussion document today, Revenue Minister Peter Dunne seems to concede that legislation will be unlikely to be ready before the middle of next year.

“And in reality that may well mean that nothing at all will actually change in this term of government except for lots more talk --- and except for the level of child support debt increasing at double the rate it increased under Labour,” Stuart Nash said.

“It almost beggars belief that National’s Judith Collins should demand stridently in 2005 that people who owed money should not be able to travel overseas, but it seems that now this is not a route the National-led government particularly wants to go down.”

Stuart Nash said he believed that the discussion document contained options around flexibility and fairness that were worthy of discussion.

“But the point is that if child support debt is tantamount to child neglect, as Judith Collins says, then discussions around flexibility and fairness should have been initiated 20 months ago. That way, National could have had a plan in place and working by now.

“Instead National has allowed the situation to deteriorate sharply --- at the rate of about a quarter of a billion dollars a year,” Stuart Nash said.

“Who’s guilty of ‘child neglect’ now? National is unlikely to achieve anything significant before the next election, but Labour is committed to developing a new scheme that protects children, that is fair to parents, and that is practical to implement.”

ENDS