Govt proves it has lost touch with families

The Social Development Minister's claim that sole mother families are just as good as traditional nuclear families is absolute 'twaddle', says National Party Family spokeswoman Judith Collins.

"Steve Maharey has shown himself to be completely out of touch with the realities of modern day parenting. It's obvious from his naïve comments that he has never been around for the 4am feeding," Ms Collins says.

"This is yet another example of Labour's insidious social engineering. I wonder how many solo mothers Mr Maharey spoke to before reaching this startling conclusion?

"There is no doubt that the vast majority of sole parent mothers would welcome more support from their child's father," Ms Collins says.

"Instead Labour's letting family support payments go uncollected, it has removed the work test requirement for the DPB, it's floated proposals that would allow female fathers and it's making fathers feel increasingly irrelevant.

"Mr Maharey has even admitted that when he was a child New Zealand was more 'family friendly'. Yet, it's clear from his comments that Labour has no plans to address the decline of the family," says Ms Collins.

"His remarks also fly in the face of international research and even a study done here at home and released just 11 days ago. The 14-month-long 'Good Man Project' reached the conclusion that dads needed to have a greater role in raising their sons.

"The Labour Government has to accept the reality that in most cases two parents are better than one, despite the Minister's claim.

"Instead of being the Minister for Social Development, Steve Maharey's forging a new name for himself as the Minister for social engineering," says Ms Collins.

© Scoop Media