Waatea News Column: So why aren’t we talking about NZ women having more babies?
When Christopher Luxon made a throwaway comment about women needing to have more babies to replace our falling population rates, the debate was overshadowed by Luxon’s previous position on making women pay prescription fees for their contraception which was unfortunate because it is a debate that needs to be had, particularly for our indigenous culture who see family as adding to our collective whakapapa, whānau, hapu and iwi.
We refuse point blank to acknowledge the true cost paid mostly by women for having children, and if we want to be respectful to that sacrifice we need to be serious about offsetting the true costs of having those children while respecting Māori cultural values!
Current paid Maternity/Paternity leave is a mere 26 weeks when it should be a full year. We know how important that first year for baby is and who else do you want looking after baby other than mum or dad?
Currently ECE is disgustingly expensive and prohibitive for most mums and dads, what we need to do is nationalise all ECE the way we have with Primary and Secondary education and make looking after 2year olds to 5 year olds completely free of charge!
Then there is after school care the cost of which once again cripples the ability for mums and dads to pay while working!
Then there is a lack of universal school breakfasts and lunches to help with the ongoing costs of feeding those kids.
If we want to respect the decision to carry life into this world and want to ensure the cost is not damaging mums and dads, we need to actually subsidise that cost via a years paid maternity/paternity leave, nationalise Early Childcare Education, make all after school care free and make school breakfasts and lunches universal.
If we want to ensure we can replace our population and if we want to make future generations more secure from the ravages of poverty, then it takes actual investment into the social infrastructure around having children!
Where will we find the money to pay for this? IRD just told us the rich have rigged capitalism in NZ, we can afford to provide lower costs to parents having babies if we tax the rich.
Poverty is a political choice, it doesn’t have to be and culturally for Māori this is a fundamental value issue.
First published on Waatea News.
The Labour government dumped the Commissioner for Children knowing they could get away with it because Kiwis don’t like kids, killing and abusing them in world leading numbers, and not likely to be particularly concerned if babies, toddlers and kiddies had their best voice permanently silenced. No children’s commissioner also protects the bullies, which seems to be a new nasty social dynamic as evidenced at Albert Park, as well as protecting the government itself from having its inadequacies revealed by an independent mouthpiece not under its control.
The cost of children is known intimately to their carers, who shoulder it best they can. A bundle of joy can impact negatively at many levels in a nuclear family, and especially upon unwanted children, but once they’re here, they’re part of the community whose interests are best served by giving all kids the best possible start in life. This is so self evident that no amount of waffle from privileged politicians is going to change it. With Labour no longer representing the working class, and Luxon viewing children as economic units just like Bill did, it’s time to decide that every child counts and biff both parties out of Parliament.
Thr Patriarchy?
The Patriarchy?