October 12, 2004

Child Poverty And Unsafe Sex

The Child Poverty Action Group is today calling on the government to take immediate steps to eliminate child poverty while simultaneously, the Durex Global Sex Survey has revealed more than half of New Zealand women are practising unsafe sex, despite being concerned about unplanned pregnancies, an irony noted by Lindsay Mitchell, petitioner for a parliamentary review of the DPB.

"Many of the children the CPAG are concerned about are the results of unprotected sex. They are born to parents without the means to raise them. Many will spend their first years in benefit dependent households."

"Half of all the babies born in 1994 had contact with the benefit system in their first three years of life. And every year 5,000 more babies are added to existing benefits. Is this intentional?"

"Dr Nikki Turner, spokesperson for the CPAG, says that it is high time the government acted to reduce the poverty experienced by one in three children."

"Nearly all of these children are already getting income support, most of them the DPB. Yet there is not one word from the CPAG about parental autonomy or parental responsibility."

"These so-called advocates for children need to open their eyes and start identifying the real problem. As long as they keep on demanding the government solve child poverty those creating it will carry right on."

Lindsay Mitchell petitioner for a parliamentary review of the DPB forms available from www.liberalvalues.org.nz contact dandl.mitchell@clear.net.nz

ENDS

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