families

Categories under families

Green and you have kids? Really?

Written By: - Date published: 2:08 pm, May 10th, 2012 - 73 comments

Here’s a quick way to reduce your carbon footprint: don’t have kids and save 80 years worth of human greenhouse gas output per child… This is my Voluntary Human Extinction Movement post.

Teenage dreams

Written By: - Date published: 11:59 am, May 10th, 2012 - 56 comments

With the debate raging about free contraception for women and their teenage daughters, inevitably the conclusion is that irresponsible teenager girls are making poor decisions. Why do they get pregnant? That’s the easy part – teens not using contraception, of course. Why teenage pregnancy is an intractable problem is a much more complex question.

Birth Control

Written By: - Date published: 8:38 pm, May 8th, 2012 - 83 comments

At first glance it seems strange to have Sue Bradford, a former Green MP, against what is a very ‘green’ policy – free contraception. But she has a point when she talks about beneficiaries feeling forced into sterility they don’t want. Meanwhile, what’s with the right’s obsession with targeting women having babies while on a benefit?

Contraception debate

Written By: - Date published: 1:48 pm, May 8th, 2012 - 96 comments

The Government is planning to offer free long-term contraception for beneficiaries and their daughters.  At one level its a sensible idea.  But it comes with too much baggage attached.  The Nats have already made such a mess of it that they can’t make this proposal with any credibility.

$100m for Lizards

Written By: - Date published: 8:54 pm, April 26th, 2012 - 26 comments

John Key and Bill English couldn’t find $150million over four years for increased parental leave that would hugely benefit future children. Horrors – we would have to borrow! But they could find $100million straight away to pay international investment banks including Australian company Lazard’s to advise on asset sales that robs our children’s future and that  nobody else wants. It’s a matter of priorities – money gets money, kids get nothing.

Daughter, my generation is squandering your birthright

Written By: - Date published: 12:33 pm, April 20th, 2012 - 46 comments

Will our children think of the welfare state, the tiger and the rhino as part of a mythologised Arcadia?

Choices, choices: Farrar seeks parental leave funding

Written By: - Date published: 7:27 am, April 13th, 2012 - 42 comments

Last week, David Farrar demanded to know where the government is getting $62m for youth mental health services… Actually he didn’t (they’re stealing it from other health funding) but he is demanding Labour explains where it would get $125m a year for extending paid parental leave. I guess he just really wants to make sure it’s feasible. Lets help him out with some options

Paid Parental

Written By: - Date published: 11:46 am, April 10th, 2012 - 133 comments

Sue Moroney’s 6 months of Paid Parental Bill looks like being a second Labour private member’s bill that will proceed against National’s wishes.

Bathwater and babies

Written By: - Date published: 9:42 pm, March 19th, 2012 - 31 comments

Tapu Misa has an excellent article in today’s Herald. She hopes those predicting the demise of Labour’s pre-election promise to extend Working to Families to the children of beneficiaries are wrong. So do I. Labour will be defined by what it does for our children. Let’s not throw out what was a very very good policy.

Wanna stop problem gamblers? Close the casinos

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, March 1st, 2012 - 133 comments

SkyCity is shrugging its shoulders after 2 adults left 5 children in locked in a van while they gambled in its casino. This is the 25th such incident this year. Yes, these are bad parents. SkyCity profits by problem gamblers acting impulsively and irrationally chasing rewards ignoring the costs – that’s exactly what its customers do when they leave their kids in cars to go gamble.

Participate: Green Paper on Vulnerable Children

Written By: - Date published: 5:57 pm, February 17th, 2012 - 39 comments

Paula Bennett, in her rush to action, has a Green Paper that intends to create a White Paper that may result in some legislation that she hopes will help “vulnerable children”. But, much as National have spurned attempts from other parties for a non-partisan action on child poverty and looking after our nation’s children, we […]

How to wreck your brand in one easy step

Written By: - Date published: 8:29 pm, February 8th, 2012 - 88 comments

Publicly attack an All Black and loving father for how he chooses to raise his child. This isn’t about the rights and wrongs of breast vs formula vs expressing. I can’t speak to the science of that. But I’ll tell you that La Leche, Plunket, and the Council of Midwives have done massive damage to their own cause with this PR fiasco. Just pure, arrogant stupidity.

200,000 children abandoned so already rich can get richer

Written By: - Date published: 7:31 am, November 10th, 2011 - 52 comments

 

How many children is 200,000 in the context of New Zealand’s population? Statistics New Zealand says between June 2008-2011 around 62-64,000 children were born each year. So 200,000 amounts to every single child born in this country since National came to power three years ago, plus another 10,000 or so.

Labour’s fantastic children’s policy

Written By: - Date published: 7:42 am, November 8th, 2011 - 272 comments

Labour released its excellent children’s policy yesterday  that will lift 150,000 children out of poverty and enhance families’ quality of life. The Right is wailing. Fuck ’em. They’ve turned a blind eye while 32,000 more kids have fallen into poverty.  Only a Labour-led government will have the policies for a truly brighter future for all Kiwis, especially our kids.

Congrats Danyl

Written By: - Date published: 10:29 am, October 13th, 2011 - 8 comments

We’d been missing the Dimpost lately but it seems there was good reason for Danyl abandoning his blog – as of Sunday he’s a dad! Congratulations to Danyl and Maggie from all of us at the Standard – hopefully the months of sleep deprivation you’re about to endure won’t blunt your political satire 😉

ECE Taskforce report

Written By: - Date published: 12:45 pm, June 2nd, 2011 - 16 comments

It’s great to have North Shore candidate Ben Clark writing for us here at The Standard.  This is a Guest Post from brother and Dunedin North candidate David Clark (a dynamic duo indeed!).  David writes about the just released government report on the early childhood education sector…

Child crime and bullying

Written By: - Date published: 6:43 am, April 5th, 2011 - 41 comments

Under Key’s government we are seeing an escalation in violence committed by children.  Why?  TV and media violence hasn’t noticeably step-changed in the last year.  More likely it is a symptom of the stress that families are under.  Children are the canaries in the coal mine…

Children First

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, March 18th, 2011 - 67 comments

I was going to have my first post on the economy, but that will have to wait until the weekend as I’m all inspired after hearing Judy Bailey give a Brainwave Trust presentation this week.  The incredible importance of providing the best possible start to our children in those very early years was good to have reinforced…

Farrar illustrates WfF folly

Written By: - Date published: 9:02 am, March 4th, 2011 - 46 comments

John Key has tidied up the confusion he caused yesterday and says that the quakes will cost the government $5 billion in rebuilding and $5 billion in lost revenue over the next 4 years. Big bikkies but easily covered by an emergency levy and canning the white elephant motorways. So, why are the Nats obsessed with tinkering with Working for Families?

English on Working for Families

Written By: - Date published: 9:34 pm, March 2nd, 2011 - 81 comments

English on Working for Families cuts: “around 1,000 families earning over $100,000 receive WFF, and payments to those families total only $1.1 million …  Taking higher-income families out of WFF saves very little money …
In this uncertain economic climate, we want to give all families certainty about their incomes”

Welfare Working Group promotes eugenics

Written By: - Date published: 10:55 am, February 23rd, 2011 - 183 comments

The Welfare Working Group wants to get poor women to breed less by giving them free long-term contraception. Sure, this is all an ‘Overton window‘ exercise but eugenics? Seriously? Trying to stop one ‘undesirable’ strata of society from breeding is one step from forced sterilisations. Has the Right reverted 80 years?

Don’t abandon Pike River recovery

Written By: - Date published: 10:44 am, January 26th, 2011 - 21 comments

Good news for families of the Pike River miners. The Police have shown them video proving their mens bodies are still intact. It raises questions about the government’s actions. Why was this footage previously withheld? Why were the Nats spinning that there was nothing left to recover? And why was the recovery really abandoned so hastily?

UN: Kiwi kids worries

Written By: - Date published: 9:24 am, January 21st, 2011 - 10 comments

The UN committee on the rights of the child has had some harsh things to say about New Zealand’s performance in looking after our children, especially on our infant mortality and childhood poverty rates. With National cutting ECE and lowering criminal responsibility and Labour proposing longer Paid Parental Leave and increased support for children under-5 and their families, will this please become an election issue?

A failure of leadership over Pike River

Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, January 15th, 2011 - 115 comments

Like smiling and waving, frowning and looking sombre, is easy. But satisfying the expectations you create can be hard. This is where Key consistently fails. He has failed again over Pike River. The sudden and inadequately explained end to the recovery operation is bad enough. Lying about the promises he made is gravely insulting.

Children in poverty

Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, December 15th, 2010 - 207 comments

Child poverty is on the rise again.  My question to the National government is simple.  What are you going to do to reverse this trend and lift children out of poverty?  It’s your watch.  What are you going to do?

The other welfare report

Written By: - Date published: 9:33 am, December 2nd, 2010 - 12 comments

The recommendations of the Nats’ welfare working group are, predictably, good old fashioned Tory welfare bashing.  In contrast a report released last week by the Anglican Social Justice Commission shows just how misguided the ideology underlying this attack on welfare is.

ECE costs to skyrocket

Written By: - Date published: 1:59 pm, December 1st, 2010 - 54 comments

The Nats’ stupid slash and burn approach to early childhood education (ECE) is about to hammer families.  And once again Anne Tolley is in complete denial about it.

Thoughts with the Pike workers and families

Written By: - Date published: 11:42 am, November 22nd, 2010 - 21 comments

It can only be an unthinkably tough time for all Pike River miners, their families, and the communities on the Coast. I’m sure I speak for all The Standard writers and contributors when I say that our thoughts are with them. Despite all the dire news so far three days after the explosion, we simply don’t have the full story till the rescue team get down there and try to bring these guys back to the surface. Till then, we can only hold on and hope.

Pike River fears grow

Written By: - Date published: 5:02 pm, November 20th, 2010 - 38 comments

The news coming out from the Pike River mine disaster is not sounding good. Spare a thought tonight for the miners and their families.

20 hours free to go?

Written By: - Date published: 1:57 pm, October 28th, 2010 - 33 comments

The last Labour government introduced 20 hours free early childhood education.  It’s a resource that many parents have since come to rely on, taking some pressure off household budgets as every other cost seems to keep on going up and up.  But now we have the latest in a series of indications that the Nats are going to cut the programme…

Child friendly

Written By: - Date published: 8:17 am, October 17th, 2010 - 58 comments

The Labour conference this weekend is expected to release new “policy directions”.  One of them is out already — and it’s good.  What could make more sense than putting children first?

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