John MacDonald: Need a carrot to have kids? Don't have them
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How is it that a political party which attracts its fair share of people who think there are women having babies just to get on the benefit, now thinks we should pay people to have more kids?
It makes no sense to me.
Its great we’re talking about the birth rate problem in this country. But this isn’t the solution.
Because incentivising people with money would only have one outcome. More deadbeats bringing children into the world just so they can get their hands on money from the government.
NZ First has come out with this policy becuase it says it’s concerned about the declining birth rate and thinks people would have more kids if the government paid them $15,000 per child.
Leader Winston Peters says the payments would be available to New Zealand citizens for up to three children, meaning families could receive as much as $45,000 from the government.
Former Work & Income boss Christine Rankin can smell a rat. She’s saying today the fact that NZ First would limit these payments to families where at least parent is a New Zealand citizen, means it’s more anti-immigration than pro-family.
And, like me, she sees it being something people would take advantage of for all the wrong reasons.
Such as the deadbeats I’ve already mentioned. But also, she says, people struggling who would look at the chance to make $45,000 if they had three kids, see it as a decent chunk of money, and not think about the ongoing costs once the kids turn three and the government money dries up.
Australia's already tried it. They started paying families a baby bonus in 2004 to encourage people to have more babies.
The line the Australian government used at the time was “have one for your husband and one for your wife and one for the country".
But it was scrapped in 2013. For several reasons.
Their government realised it couldn’t afford to keep it going. It was paid to anyone and everyone, meaning rich families who had kids got the money - even though they didn’t need it. And the public didn’t like that.
The other reason it was dropped, is that people were using it to by things like big screen TVs and flash phones. The kinds of things new babies really need.
And I can tell you now, the exact same thing would happen here.
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