Orewa II

Don Brash's Orewa speech sounded so nice and reasonable. Nobody disagrees that "a healthy society is one where people take responsibility for their own, and their children's, lives, as well as showing care and compassion for their neighbours".

But Brash fails to discuss how families can take responsibility, (apart from refusing to have more kids) as he'd rather bash the beneficiary system.

Brash considers the DPB is contributing to family breakdown. So what does Don Brash say about the breakdown of the family?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. He has nothing to say.

What does he have to say about low wages that are comntributing to closing the gap between welfare and work?

Nothing.

It was Brash who contributed to low wages when he was the Reserve Bank Governor.

He is happy for single parent families to have kids - as long as they are not on welfare. He is happy for parents to struggle in two low paid jobs to pay the mortgage and support their kids - even if they are getting a lower income than their neighbour on the DPB, because they are paying $10 an hour per child to put them through child care, thus eating up nearly their entire second income.

That’s because the family is not on welfare.

Take the DPB, introduced in 1973. It was a benefit for "deserted wives". These days most DPB beneficiaries are not deserted wives; they are single women who have had children. Back in the 1970's most families had one breadwinner, usually the dad, and the mother got to raise the kids full time. In most cases they were married. These days there is no loss of "breadwinner income" in this manner.

Now, about 50 percent of children born in this country are born to parents who are not married. Two out of every three Maori children are born into welfare dependant families, many of whom have one parent - the mother.

The two issues that Brash could have addressed are the breakdown of the family and the low wages many working families get in this country. But it is easier to attack the welfare system because beneficiaries don’t pay tax, while they get all their money through taxes paid by workers - unless of course they have a part time job.

The breakdown of families and having kids before parents can drum up financial support for these kids is a bigger problem than our welfare system. The welfare system picks up the pieces when the money runs out. Both Labour and National are doing nothing about it. Steve Maharey is on record saying children brought up in sole parent households are, quote "doing OK", while Brash wants parents and unemployed beneficiaries to work in crappy jobs schemes before they get a real job.

Brash says, " We see many hard luck stories in the media about people who have no jobs, poor living conditions and many children. Yet our journalists rarely ask the hard questions that must be asked: how did you get into this situation, how much of it were you responsible for, and how much was bad luck?"

It’s a good question, but one Brash doesn't seem to keen to answer. If Brash were to take a closer look he would find that the majority of families (as opposed to single people) on the benefit got there through immigration, redundancy or their contracts ending. Others wanted to get ahead in life so they studied - and then ended on the benefit, as they couldn’t get a job. Of course some on the DPB moved there from the Unemployment Benefit when they had kids. Brash says nothing about that, but it is still having kids on welfare.

Brash needs to ask and answer the hard questions, like what National is going to do about policies that have contributed to the breakdown of families, and what National is going to do to ensure that families - to quote Michael Joseph Savage - "have an income to provide everything necessary to make a home and a home life". Brash may have quoted Savage, but selectively.

Labour's answer is Working for Families because it can't guarantee families to have sufficient income via their pay cheque.

National does not have an answer.