Bradford bashing Brash
I had to laugh at this comment from Sue Bradford, as she attacked Don Brash's speech.
Forcing people out of their homes and into work was telling solo parents that being a mother was not a worthy occupation and only paid work mattered.
That attitude was exactly behind the reason behind paid parental leave, supported by the Greens. Bradford believes that getting mothers back to work is of a higher value than staying at home to look after the kids - unless you are a sole mother, in which case you can live off my taxes, because you won't get paid parental leave. In fact you`ll get more than paid parental leave. That’s because if you are are a sole parent and have kids you are better off on the dpb during the 14 weeks after the birth, with all the add-ons. If you are a stay at home mum and have kids, you dont get paid parental leave -and neither does your partner, so you both lose out.
Brash wants people in paid work. But if he was married and a parent with three kids under six, was paying off a mortgage and a student loan, would he take a job earning $30,000 a year? For that matter, if he was a solo parent with three kids, would he work for $30,000 and put his kids in childcare? He would get less disposable income than the dpb - but of course, Brash doesn’t want to talk about that.
The unions appear to be talking about lifting low incomes in this country. It's about time someone started walking the talk and making it happen.
1 comment:
I applaud you sir on your conclusion. I haven't heard any of the heavyweight commentators mention much about raising wages. We can only hope that Labour does not undertake any moves to weaken the position of workers. It seems that despite their much-decried labour market reforms, they were relatively insignificant, and hardly resulted in higher wages. Employers have kept a lid on wage pressures, but the cost of living has risen over the last 5 years dramatically in comparison with average income. Free-marketeers blame Labour for stealthily increasing taxes over that time, with some justification. I think NZ employers are generally quite stingy, encouraging young kiwis to find a decent living overseas. It's time for a bit of wealth redistribution and sharing in the vaunted growth of the last 5 years. Most kiwis have missed out.
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