Govt Unconcerned At High Numbers Born Onto A Benefit

In Parliament today United Future MP, Judy Turner, pointed out to Social Development Minister, Steve Maharey, that over the past five years 25,000 people already on a benefit had further children, said Lindsay Mitchell, petitioner for a Parliamentary review of the DPB.

"Earlier this year, when I put this issue to Associate Minister, Ruth Dyson, her only response was that the government does not make a moral judgement. Steve Maharey's response to Judy Turner today was some equally lame nonsense about governments not paying people to have children."

"Of course they do. If you're on the DPB and keep having children you get more money; if you keep having children there is no pressure to get a job so the government has to pay you an income. There is more incentive in the benefit system to have another child than there is to get a job".

"Children being born onto a benefit is a problem, even if this Labour government refuses to acknowledge it. Their own research clearly shows that children born onto a benefit stay there the longest and are consequently the most disadvantaged."

"Growing families courtesy of the state is a lifestyle choice for many beneficiaries. At least United Future are waking up to this fact."

Lindsay Mitchell petitioner for a Parliamentary review of the DPB ph/fx 04 562 7944 petition forms available at http://www.liberalvalues.org.nz

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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>>