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Lifting
Children out of Dependency
17
August 2008
Muriel Newman
The release of
the National Party’s welfare policy has brought a
predictable clamour from the defenders of the present
welfare system. Such was the protest that one could be
mistaken for thinking National was proposing to abolish
welfare entirely! Hardly.
More
>>>
Welfare
Reform
17
August 08
Tommy
Thompson
– former Governor of Wisconsin
We
in the United States have had considerable successes with
welfare reform in helping many families to become economically
independent. Let me share with you the progress of our welfare
reforms... More
>>>
Moral
Neutrality
20
July 2008
Muriel Newman
Earlier this month Britain’s culture of “moral
neutrality” came under attack. In a speech in Glasgow,
Conservative Party Leader Rt Hon David Cameron said that
the obese, drug addicts and the poor have no-one to blame
but themselves.
More
>>>
Fixing
our Broken Society
19
July 08
Rt
Hon David Cameron MP, Leader
Conservative Party (UK)
I
think the time has come for me to speak out about something
that has been troubling me for a long time. I have not found
the words to say it sensitively. More
>>>
Restoring
Fatherhood
6 July 2008
Muriel Newman
The fact is that endless studies from around the world
show that virtually every major social pathology we face
can be linked back to the breakdown of the family: violent
crime, drugs and alcohol abuse, truancy, unwed pregnancy,
suicide, psychological disorders – these all correlate
more strongly to the absence of a biological married
father in the home than with any other single
factor.
More
>>>
Homo
Degeneratus
5
July 08
Bob Jones
Five
years ago Reeds published my novel True
Facts. Before
you scream, understand that the title was not a
grammatical error, rather it was deliberate and highly
pertinent to the plot, as I shall explain.
More
>>>
Action
Group, Gangs & Welfare
4 May 08
Muriel Newman
The Child Poverty
Action Group believes paying beneficiaries more will solve
poverty in New Zealand. It won't. A shocking documentary
on gangs in New Zealand by award-winning British
journalist Ross Kemp (one that will not be screened on NZ
TV) show that it is the very state support that the Action
Group is proposing that has caused notorious Mongrel Mob
members to turn against society.
More >>>
Investing
in Children
4 May 08
Dr
Karen Hartshorn
Thirty years
ago, Phil Silva (the founding director of the Dunedin
Study) wrote that New Zealanders invested more time and
care in maintaining their cars than they did their
children.
Since then, a number of programmes geared towards
monitoring childhood health have been developed, but
are more programmes focussing on early childhood
development the way forward? More
>>>
You
Reap What You Sow
Muriel Newman
27 January 08
Cheyenne Petersen,
just 18 months old, was carried into the bush by her
P-addled mother Natasha - and left to die. More than 12
hours after dumping Cheyenne, Petersen eventually led
police to her body...
More >>>
'Another
one bites the dust'... Another baby is dead.
Christine Rankin
27 January 08
For some reason that I simply cannot fathom we fail as a
Nation to understand or respond to this hugely
embarrassing and destructive issue. If we are not
embarrassed by it, we damned well should be. We are rated
by the OECD to be at the top of world statistics for child
abuse and murder.... More
>>>
Taxpayer
Funded Activism
Muriel Newman
4
November 2007
In
the wake of last month’s Police raids, Tuhoe activists have
asked to be left alone to
establish an independent Tuhoe nation. They say that they will
take up arms to defend their right to live as they please, as
a country within a country. More
>>>
Why
Welfare Reform Succeeded [in US]
Prof.
Laurence Mead
4 November 07
Welfare
reform was a great but incomplete triumph. It moved the
welfare poor toward work. It was a major achievement for
government. And its political effects could well make good its
shortcomings, provided the poor mobilize politically.
More
>>>
The
Unspeakable Question
Muriel Newman
4
August 2007
Another
Maori baby has died at the hands of family members. Yesterday,
three year old Nia Glassie, the little girl who was tortured
by family members, lost her battle with life.
More
>>>
Child
Abuse, My Story
Bev
Adair
4 August 07
I
know how it feels to have a life of apparently no value to
anyone. I was born in 1952 in Otahuhu, the middle child of ten
children. My Dad was European and my mother was Maori. Both
were alcoholics. My mother was a street girl as well.
More
>>>
Breaking
Through
Muriel Newman
21
July 2007
Early
last year a little boy was brutally beaten to death by his
mother and her partner:
“The
child's blood was also found throughout the house. In two
rooms - the living area and his bedroom - the blood had
splattered so high it hit the ceiling”.
More
>>>
Bureaucratic
Destruction
Peter
Allen
21 July 07
Having
had the privilege of heading up one of New Zealand’s leading
Youth support organisations for over a decade I have been
appalled at the progressive destruction of community-owned Non
Government Organisations (NGO’s) through the control freak
mentality of politicians and the bureaucratic system. More
>>>
Australian
Welfare Reform
Muriel Newman
15
July 2007
Last
year, Dr Sue Gordon, West Australia’s first Aboriginal
Magistrate and Chair of the National Indigenous Council, gave
a speech at a child abuse conference in Wellington. In her
speech she highlighted some of the appalling statistics
relating to the abuse of Aboriginal children. These included
the fact that in
2004-05, 4,887 Indigenous
children under the age of 17 were abused, a rate 3.6
times higher than
non-Indigenous Australians. Indigenous children are also six
times more likely to
be on care and protection orders than other Australian
children. More
>>>
The
Future of the Welfare State in NZ
Peter Saunders
18 March 07
What
kind of welfare state should
New Zealand
have in 30 years? If the trends of the past 30 years were to
continue, we could end up with more than a quarter of
working-age adults living on benefits, a huge retired
population relying on a hopelessly overstretched pension and
health system, and younger workers struggling under a massive
tax burden as government soaks up almost half the nation's
gross domestic product to pay for it all. More
>>>
The
Underclass
Muriel
Newman
25 Feb 07
Helen Clark might
try to deny that an underclass is flourishing in
New Zealand
but the public knows better. According to a recent Colmar
Brunton poll, more than eight in every 10 people
surveyed believed there is an underclass problem. It is
little wonder - the signs are everywhere. More >>>
Working for the Dole
Muriel
Newman
3 Feb 07
Winston
Churchill once said: The inherent vice of capitalism is
the unequal sharing of the blessings.
The
inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of
misery. More >>>
Will migrant wokers take our jobs?
Muriel
Newman
4 Nov 06
As predicted the latest benefit
statistics show that welfare continues to increase with
almost 2,000 more people claiming they are either too sick
to work or can’t find jobs, than three months ago. That
takes the total number of working age beneficiaries to
282,000. This includes 41,000 people who are on the dole,
100,000 able-bodied sole parents who are paid to stay out
of the workforce until their youngest child is 18 years
old, and 123,000 beneficiaries who claim they are too sick
or disabled to work. More >>>
Welfare Reform, perception or reality?
Muriel
Newman
29 Oct 06
On Thursday the Minister of Social
Welfare announced “the biggest changes to the benefit
system in 50 years”. This latest announcement follows a
proclamation last February by the previous Minister that
the introduction of a single benefit was “the most
significant reform of
New Zealand
's welfare system in seventy years”. More >>>
The "tight 12" - their right to
silence
Muriel
Newman
23 September 06
Police
reported that a so-called "Tight 12" of family
members who had contact with Chris and Cru before they
died had stonewalled the murder investigation by refusing
to reveal who was responsible. Members of the Tight 12
know who killed the babies. By not telling police they are
exercising their legal right to silence. While that seems
neither fair nor just, since it protects a child killer,
it is nevertheless a fundamental democratic right.
More >>>
Welfare - who needs it?
Bruce Logan
23 Sept 06
It was Samuel Johnson who
said; "poverty is a great enemy to human happiness;
it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues
impracticable, and others extremely difficult."
Johnson, as he frequently does, gets to the heart
of the matter. Virtue and freedom are necessary partners;
one cannot exist without the other. More
>>>
Three Anniversaries
Muriel
Newman
16 September 06
This
week’s column looks at three anniversaries – the first
anniversary of the formation of the New Zealand Centre for
Political Debate, the five year anniversary of 9/11 and
the ten year anniversary of
US
welfare reform.
More >>>
The Real Child Abuse Culprit
Muriel
Newman
29 July 06
As the country struggles to come to terms with the extent
of
New Zealand
’s child abuse problem and what can be done about it,
the real culprits have remained hidden. This week Newman
Weekly looks at who is to blame, while the guest comment -
from the Otago Daily Times - investigates the growth of
“hatred, envy, rage, self-loathing, poverty, ignorance,
dehumanisation, nihilistic parenting, and the seeds of
racial confrontation” in our youth.
More >>>
Perpetuating Poverty
Muriel
Newman
15 July 06
It was Ronald Reagan who said,
"Government is not a solution to our problem,
government is the problem." He could have been
talking about New Zealand. More >>>
The Failure of Welfare
Muriel
Newman
8 July 06
The
murder of the two Kahui babies has rocked the nation.
Everyone is trying to come to grips, not only with how on
earth the family can get away with colluding to hide the
killer, but why this and other such dreadful tragedies
continue to happen.
More >>>
The Maori Child Abuse Crisis
Muriel
Newman
2 July 06
The violent murder of
three-month old babies Chris and Cru Kahui is a stark
reminder of an ugly sickness that exists in New Zealand
society. Once heralded as one of the safest places in the
world to bring up a family, New Zealand
has fallen to third worst in the OECD for child deaths,
from sixth worst in 1994. More >>>
In Our
Hands
Muriel
Newman
10 June 06
New Zealand
is a country where
there should be no poverty. With cradle to the grave
welfare assistance, a vast supply of available jobs, and a
temperate climate where families can grow enough food to
be relatively self-sufficient, not only should there be no
poverty, but there should be no intergenerational welfare
and no underclass either. More >>>
Nature Knows Best
Muriel
Newman
27 May 06
Every
day, in a myriad of ways, nature reminds us of her ancient
powers: whether it’s the sight of birds flocking ready
to migrate on their autumn journey across the globe, or
the awful devastation of cyclones, earthquakes and
volcanoes, nature has a time-clock and a mind of her own.
And while it is true that man has learned to harness the
power of nature to some extent, and through sensible
preparation minimise her devastation, our world remains
largely at her beck and call. More >>>
Transforming Welfare
Muriel
Newman
11 Feb 06
Jamie is 20. He has
never had a job. He didn’t really have an education
either: because his mother never bothered with preschool,
he always lagged behind the other kids, and so right from
the beginning started playing truant whenever he could. More >>>
Welfare
Reform in Australia
Phil
Rennie & Prof Peter Saunders
11
Feb 06
Australia
has been going
through an unprecedented and unbroken period of
prosperity. The
economy is booming, employers are complaining of labour
shortages, and real incomes are higher than they have ever
been. Yet
rates of welfare dependency are still rising.
More
>>>
Welfare Reform, Fiscal
Savings
Dr
Don Brash
27 Jan 06
Twelve months ago, I gave a major speech to the
Orewa Rotary Club about the National Party’s commitment
to welfare reform.
I noted that 30 years ago the number of working-aged
adults on a benefit in
New Zealand
was fewer than 40,000, whereas in 2005 the figure was over
300,000, despite the economic buoyancy induced by some of
the strongest export prices in a generation. More
>>>
The Fatherless
Generation
Muriel
Newman
28 Oct 05
This week concerns over youth gangs and violence have hit
the headlines. It is a problem that can be found to a
greater or lesser degree in many towns and cities
throughout the country. More
>>>
Why Subsidise
Dependency?
Muriel
Newman
12 Oct 05
Incentives
are a driving force of human behaviour. Because people
respond to incentives in a relatively predictable manner,
the study of incentives is at the heart of economic
theory. Their manipulation is also at the heart of
politics.
More
>>>
The Conspiracy of Silence
Must End
Muriel
Newman
26
Sep 05
One of
the biggest scandals of modern times is the condoning of
welfare-induced child abuse by governments. What I am
referring to is the situation where New Zealand taxpayers
are forced to fund a welfare system, which by encouraging
family beakdown and discouraging personal responsibility,
leads to increasing numbers of children being abused and
damaged on a daily basis. More
>>>
5
Point Plan to Halt NZ's Child abuse record
Muriel
Newman
01 July
05
Answers
to parliamentary questions show that established cases of
child abuse have surged 45 percent over the last twelve
months to a record 13,017 cases. This is a child abuse
scandal that has the fingerprints of Government failure
all over it.
More
>>>
The
Single Benefit
Muriel
Newman
25 Feb 05
The mark of an effective welfare system is not only how
well it looks after the genuine needy, but also how
quickly it helps those without a job into the workforce.
On both of these counts, New Zealand’s welfare system -
once hailed as one of the best in the world - is now sadly
failing. More
>>>
Shifting NZers off welfare and into work
Muriel
Newman
24
Jan 05
Welfare
– or more correctly – welfare dependency is an area
that causes unease in most New Zealander. It profoundly
affects not only the shape of our society but the
direction and fortunes of its citizens. As the single
largest single area of government expenditure, welfare
also divides the country along ideological lines
separating those wanting big government and more
dependency from those who believe in limited government
and less welfare.
More
>>>
Eyes on Welfare Shambles
Muriel
Newman
11 Oct 04
A new
report this week, by the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development, has provided some serious
food for thought on the issue of welfare reform.
More
>>>
Long Term Unemployment
Muriel
Newman
30 Sep 04
A
long-term dole recipient phoned me the other day.
He’d been unemployed almost 20 years and, after
reading some of the comments I’d made – about
long-term unemployment being an undeniable symptom of
Government failure – he wanted to tell me his side of
the story.
More
>>>
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