Hard News: The Editorial Image
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Matthew Poole, in reply to
Hardening up on child support, within reason, would probably reduce the need for the DPB.
It'd be nice if the Crown stopped using child support payments to offset the DPB, actually. Pass it all through, and use it to *gasp* support the child(ren) for whom it's being paid. I suspect there'd be somewhat more compliance on payment if fathers saw their contribution as benefiting their child(ren) instead of just being consumed by the state. AIUI we're about the only "civilised" country that has such a policy.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
It’d be nice if the Crown stopped using child support payments to offset the DPB, actually. Pass it all through, and use it to *gasp* support the child(ren) for whom it’s being paid. I suspect there’d be somewhat more compliance on payment if fathers saw their contribution as benefiting their child(ren) instead of just being consumed by the state. AIUI we’re about the only “civilised” country that has such a policy.
It might have been Jacinda Ardern who pointed out on NatRad that child support payments currently go to IRD instead of directly to the worse-off parent. Is it because of anti-fraud measures?
It was also pointed in the same podcast that America has a 'most wanted' register of child support evaders.
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Matthew Poole, in reply to
child support payments currently go to IRD instead of directly to the worse-off parent. Is it because of anti-fraud measures?
Possibly, but also because until more money is being paid in child support than is going to the custodial parent in benefits the state keeps every cent. I imagine it greatly reduces the costs of collection to just pass through the small sum that needs to go out instead of chasing the large sum that would have to come back.
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Have a good one Russell.
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I'm pretty far to the left on many issues, but I'm not sure why this contraceptives to solo mums thing has taken on a certain spin. Sure, National are doing it because they think they'll save money on welfare down the track - I HOPE they're not using Freakonomics to base policy on - but I knew plenty of DBP mothers when growing up who desperately wanted free accessible contraception.
And it's not like any govt is going to make it free to all, so why not target the worst-off groups? Like cheaper prescriptions for those on benefits.
There might be an element of slippery-slopism in play here- that women might be FORCED to take these things. Sure, I have bugger-all trust in National as well, but I can't see them taking the eugenics approach (or what might possibly be construed as it). ACT, on the other hand....
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Go Hodgson. There is a recent tendency (beyond, but probably arising from the Wiki thing) for built in negative reaction to nazi/facist referencing as if that should close any debate down. Rodney and Mark Ford’s bastard spawn Super city structures are corporatist but not fascist. Fascism is based on corporatism enforced by overwhelming state force applied to groups and individuals to get compliance.
Paula Bennett and Paula Rebstock’s social engineering are obviously not fascist either. But the underlying message does directly relate to nazi styles, some are worthy to procreate, some are not. If the torys were straight up there would be more funds available for all womens reproductive health requirements. Trace pushes the boundaries and more people should.
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Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
Like cheaper prescriptions for those on benefits.
It already exists, and now they are going up as well. Nactional announced the community services card which low income/ benefits have for prescriptions is increasing from $3 to $5 an item which hits these people in the pocket.
Both National and Act have a confidence agreement whereby they have deals with each other (also Maori Party, and Dunne) . It could be exactly the kind of thing Act wants that National agrees too whether it was their idea or not. Hence Charter schools and tiered pay for Teachers and bigger classrooms.
I am in total support of free contraception. I am totally against using solo mothers of a certain age as pawns for dodgy deals that this govt gamble with. It should be free for all, if the funding is supposed to be there.
Jus' sayin' -
Islander, in reply to
am in total support of free contraception. I am totally against using solo mothers of a certain age as pawns for dodgy deals that this govt gamble with. It should be free for all, if the funding is supposed to be there.
Jus’ sayin’+++many times-
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In dispatches, have not found the artwork yet, neglected in my earlier comment to mention Hodgson made an incredibly poignant strip one time in the “Listener” before they sacked him. Thankfully many of us have now sacked said rag.
Anyway, it involved a young person with Downs Syndrome who got teased and hassled all day long on the bus etc. When he gets home, his mum says how was your day? –Great! says the young person. Trace‘s works are slowburners somtimes.
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prescriptions is increasing from $3 to $5 an item
...actually increasing the cost of contraception for people using condoms or the contraceptive pill.
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Trace Hodgson is a genius cartoonist. I protested when his fascinating strip was cancelled by "The Listener" and have been very happy without the ragmag in my life ever since.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
Indeed, the term 'fascist' has largely descended to an epithet, like its close cousin 'communist'.
I'd say Paula Bennett and her cohorts are driven a whole lot more by a barefoot-and-pregnant worldview - or should that be Goodsex/Sexcrime - than anything remotely to do with actual Fascism with a capital F. That can be left to the likes of Alberto Fujimori, who did actually control Peru's 'poverty gene' pool with a big spiked stick.
Come to think of it, we don't have a Minister of Social Welfare, but we do have a Minister for the Promotion of Goodsex and the Prevention of Sexcrime.
Trace Hodgson is a genius cartoonist. I protested when his fascinating strip was cancelled by "The Listener" and have been very happy without the ragmag in my life ever since.
Was Hodgson kicked out of the Listener before or after Pam Stirling took the reins (in 2004)?
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
Anyway, it involved a young person with Downs Syndrome who got teased and hassled all day long on the bus etc. When he gets home, his mum says how was your day? –Great! says the young person. Trace‘s works are slowburners somtimes.
That early 90s Listener strip, each one a self-contained window into a different world, produced some jewels, like the memorable one you mention.
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I think the Mengele reference is an appropriate reminder to those who've been baying for compulsory contraception what eugenics can lead to. It's not Godwinning the discussion if the Nazi reference is relevant; societies which forcibly control reproduction are not nice places.
While I heartily support free access to contraception for everybody, the free contraception for beneficiaries and their daughters does feel like eugenics: as if poverty were a genetic disorder rather than a social one.
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Sacha, in reply to
and their daughters
that bit sealed the deal for me.
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Scott Chris, in reply to
Indeed, the term ‘fascist’ has largely descended to an epithet, like its close cousin ‘communist’.
At least 30 years ago - cue Rik:
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Rob Stowell, in reply to
Oh yeah. And the forms on offer are indicative- we know it's not so much about choice, as they are all medium/long-term options (injection, et al) with (for me) the sideways-nasty implication ‘you probably wouldn’t be able to sort this out for yourself’ and ‘every baby this person doesn’t have is another loser we won’t have to support’.
I bet they’ve run the $ on this, and someone said something like ‘for every $ we spend on contraception for these folks, we save a sack of gold!’
I’m not against free contraception. But I don’t feel comfortable with targeting beneficiaries in such a nakedly mean-eyed way. -
Rob Stowell, in reply to
But I don’t feel comfortable with targeting beneficiaries in such a nakedly mean-eyed way.
By which I mean (blushing at having fallen into Mr Key's elegantly distancing lingo) it makes me livid.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
I think the Mengele reference is an appropriate reminder to those who've been baying for compulsory contraception what eugenics can lead to. It's not Godwinning the discussion if the Nazi reference is relevant; societies which forcibly control reproduction are not nice places.
Would a trip to Auschwitz give them any food for thought? Or would they remain stuck in the mud? All this quasi-Weimarisation within the OECD nations, including us, is starting to give me the shits. Guardian poster 'Fistofnan' certainly thinks so.
What would it take to jolt the pitchfork wielders back to reality? Someone going Breivik on Waiheke? A Tottenham-on-Manukau? Or maybe they'll just put up the razor wires and gun-rack cellars, Waco-style, if they sense even the remotest threat to their state of denial. Or maybe even what's just happened on the Gaza Strip - those who died in the Holocaust would be redlining in their graves:
While I heartily support free access to contraception for everybody, the free contraception for beneficiaries and their daughters does feel like eugenics: as if poverty were a genetic disorder rather than a social one.
Which is why Paula Bennett isn't the Minister of Social Welfare, but rather Minister for the Promotion of Goodsex and the Prevention of Sexcrime.
I created my salute to Jonathan Swift as a form of therapy amidst the whole issue. It's working so far - hoisting the "Anti-PC Brigade" on its own petard is part of the fun - now it just needs a wider audience.
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Grant Buist, in reply to
Expat cartoonist Roger Langridge hosts Hodgson's astonishing '80s Listener serial Shafts of Strife here. Imagine them being brave enough to print something like that now.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
Expat cartoonist Roger Langridge hosts Hodgson's astonishing '80s Listener serial Shafts of Strife here. Imagine them being brave enough to print something like that now.
Can't scare the advertisers and investors, can we? The Prosperity Gospel is the new political correctness.
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That strip blew my mind when I was a kid ...
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But our press culture has always allowed a greater latitude to cartoonists, on the part of their editors and on the part of the public.
This tradition has a bearing as the press begins to fall out of love with John Key's government.
OK, and just because you can do something does that mean we should applaud it. (Which is distinct from saying "well, I'll defend to the death your right to be a crass, ignorant fuckwit because that's how freedom of speech has to work if it's going to mean anything at all.")
In a fit of masochism, I've been picking up the occasional copy of the Daily Mail and they are very free with the ghastly Nazi analogies -- especially where the Eurozone is concerned. Even if you think the current coalition is evil incarnate, it might well serve cartoonists to think whether that's a bar to avoid entirely.
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Scott Chris, in reply to
Would a trip to Auschwitz give them any food for thought?
Reductio ad absurdum. Cartoon hyperbole is one thing, but offering the sector of society whose greater statistical propensity to bear children outside of a stable relationship or become infected with STDs freer access to contraception is simply pragmatic social policy.
Raising the specter of eugenics smacks of paranoia imo.
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Danielle, in reply to
Apart from anything else, long-acting contraceptives for women don't protect against STDs. The government can't even manage a decent concern troll act when it comes to poor women's health.
Deborah's links roundup of local writings about this might help us to work out why this particular policy has very little to do with 'pragmatism'.
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