PRESS RELEASE

30 May 2016

Traditional Family the Best

The Conservative Party is not surprised to read in Lindsay Mitchell’s report on “Child Poverty & Family Structure: What is the evidence telling us?” that the decreasing occurrence of the natural and traditional family unit of a loving dad and mum with children, has seen a corresponding increase in child poverty and income inequality.

There has been serious undermining of the value of marriage between a man and a woman over the past 50 years. Marriage, as a life long relationship between a man and a woman, provides a gender balanced partnership in which children can flourish. The Conservative Party supports the view that gender differences are real and that parental role modelling (male and female) is an important part of child development.

The natural and normal parenting relationship is one of a loving and capable mother and father. This is not always achieved, but it is the ideal and should therefore be pursued as the best option in the first instance and should be strongly encouraged and supported by government.

Current laws and government policies, rather than encouraging and supporting a life long relationship between a man and a woman as the ideal for the raising and nurturing of children, instead reward those who choose to raise a family in a different environment with handouts, creating dependency on the government. The poorest are those most dependent and Lindsay notes that 51% of the children in poverty live in single parent families.

Lindsay states that “Despite marriage being the best protector against child poverty, it has become politically unfashionable – some argue insensitive – to express such a view.”

“It is time the government provided incentives to see marriages strengthened and children raised in the safe environment provided by a loving mum and dad,” says Party Spokesman Leighton Baker. “Next to Binding Citizen’s Initiated Referendum, the Conservative Party sees family friendly policies as being of the highest priority to bring long term positive change to our nation.”

ENDS

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