Media release from Parent.org
for immediate release.

Parents reject Helen's spin.

Helen Clark's second attempt this year to convince the public that subsidised child care is a pro-women initiative has again fail to impress parenting lobby group, Parent.org.

"Why can't she be honest about it and tell us that this measure is about coping with an employment problem" says spokesperson, Steve Gore.
"If this initiative was truly about choices for women then we would expect to see support for fathers to move into the parenting role to replace mothers returning to the workforce."

That is not happening and Parent.org points out that the message behind Clarks statement is that this government thinks that parents have no value to society and they should all be working.

"We agree with subsidised childcare and with choices for women, but what Ms Clark is proudly announcing to the world is that New Zealand parents are a group she is not interested in supporting." said Mr. Gore. "She would rather see our children farmed than raised, and so she is doing everything she can to push parents out of that role. She is a bright woman - surely she can see in incredible danger in what she is saying"

Parent.org is very concerned about the long term economic damage that this initiative could do. New Zealand's birthrate is currently below replacement. If this continues our population is going to become disproportionately elderly, relying on an increasingly smaller workforce to support a growing retired demographic.

The tax implications in this scenario are frightening. If we don't have enough children coming through to replace retiring workers the only way to support pensions, and health for the elderly will be to increase tax rates which, in turn, will drive our workers off shore to tax friendlier societies, collapsing the economy.

"Without wanting to be too coarse about it - there needs to be a lot more baby making going on." Mr. Gore noted. " Last year Australia took the desperate step of paying people to have babies. Ms Clark has taken the opposite approach and sent a strong message to people that raising children is something to be avoided at all costs."

Parents are the foundation of the future. We need them to raise a generation that is more capable than this one, and to do that they need to be valued in that role and supported with skills and knowledge.

"If we invest in our parents we would be assured of economic prosperity and social harmony. Our current approach of waiting until a parent fails completely and the child is in danger before throwing around $15,000 at the problem in the hope that something good will happen is failing dramatically. For the good of everyone we need to begin to create an environment for parents where they feel as passionate about their role as an All Black feels about theirs - when we start heading in that direction we will be on a winner."

ends

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