Umm i just joined this debate to mention some things.

Fist of all, ther WERE unmarried pregnancies 100 years ago-go to wikipedia and type in “baby-farming” and “magdalene asylum”. Also try http://www.originnsw.com/law/id3.html and http://www.jstor.org/pss/348636

Women once upon a time were shipped off to convents or their family took care of them, they gave the baby up for adoption etc. You might like to do some research on Victorian England.

Second you metion the values of traditional marriage. That came from the catholic church and you know where this is headed what with the choir boys and everything. This is 2010 and times have changed.

Thirdly I see a lot of people have posted “you should have thought of that before”. The man left her as I understand it, how are you supposed to know this is going to happen and what good does that knowledge do now. You can’t put s@#! back in the donkey unless you have a DeLorean.

I’ve seen this before. Tapu Misa wrote a sob story article. I offered to help directly financially, but nothing was taken up.

I question if “Tara” is true. Her grammar and spelling doesn’t match her story so I smell a rat.

I don’t know how you work that one out. She has identified what went wrong, what she did wrong. She has separated her self from a major contribution to those mistakes. She is not talking about repeating those mistakes. She is discussing it here which shows she is examining what has happened and what her options are. It doesn’t seem to me that she is determined to keep making the same mistakes.

And I think she was worth listening to here. It initiated discussion on a major issue and I suspect it has helped some look at it at least a little differently.

Time for some changes to your life philosophy too?

There are two kinds of people not worth listening to – those that never made a mistake and those that always make the same ones. Tara seems determined to stay in the second category.

The men here are awful. In fact, it’s quite possible one of them is your psychopathic ex, judging by the calibre of the comments. You’re very brave to agree to write here. But they need a bit of challenging, so good for you.

Next he will be claiming that his internet porn addiction, which he gained while “aggregating news” *wink*, should qualify him for ACC!!

And phule, you haven’t raised your son. We did.

We bought the food he ate and the clothes he wore. We paid for every part of the education he received and every part of the health care that kept him ticking. We did it by doing things for other people which they appreciated and rewarded with money. We did it by contributing charity in the form of taxation.

Sure, you may have physically given the money to the shopkeeper for the food or clothes, but when we gave that money to you in the first place so you could buy food and clothes the most you can claim to be is a middleman.

We never asked for a please or a thank you before we did all that, we just figured you would do the same for us if positions were reversed.

Instead you seem to delight in telling everyone about how you callously refuse to do so. Instead of working, earning, and contributing so that truly hard-up people can have the money to raise their kids, you sit around all day, getting high, doing nothing of worth to anyone else in the world except yourself.

Your kid has a couple million other people to thank for everything he has received in his life, but by all accounts you are raising him to be scornful of those good people.

You take money meant for people who can’t work, even though there is nothing stopping you from working. You are just a selfish thief.

But that was how it was for us and others in the district.

You got by because you had too.

We only had what we got because we choose it that way, we choose to send our children to boarding school, we choose to stick together when Im sure my wife could have easily walked away and lived in a flat with the kids, but we choose not too.

Time to grow up people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He refers to Gareth Morgan’s GMFI approach. The Douglas govt wrestled deeply with the way out, and in the late 80′s had a developing policy set that integrated tax rates, education choice, health choice and long term savings into the structure of state welfare support and behavioural incentives to move back into independence and citizenship It included a GMFI (guaranteed minimum family income) approach.

Back then the clark-cullen left hated the inevitable loss of state franchise over peoples lives and the Nats were just as appalled at such devolvement from the state to the people, Ruth’s brief reign being the only and ongoing exception.

We’ve really come nowhere since, indeed the move back to middle class welfare (WFF), embarrassingly low economic growth and all the rest of the clark-cullen-mahary legacy has made the world of transfer payments for much worse for both sides of the equation. Anyone worried about real unsustainability?

Tara’s story is a govt policy story as well as a personal journey story. Bennett’s efforts as Minister can only tinker with the edges until John Key is prepared to put his political skills to real work by communicating to the public that the biggies of Bill’s budget (health, education and welfare) need serious makeover. Roger’s trip to London shouldn’t distract Key’s ministers from having a good look at his 2009 press releases and latest book.

that’s ok..?

and ‘crusher collins’ is going to be our future leader..?

haha..!

(she’ll come out squeaky-clean from the upcoming gouging inquiries/revelations..?..will she..?)

listen sunshine..the number of lies/broken promises/ending of tia for sole-parents/tearing away of support for handicapped children.. ..

..to just name a few..

all the while gouging to the max..

will ensure your lot will be thrown out again for at least another nine years..

(‘crusher’..will be ‘zimmer’ by then..)

you/they have proven that you just lied thru yr teeth..to gain power..

..and since then..have broken promise after promise..

..have engaged in class-warfare against those most in need..

..all the while feathering their own nests..

..one-term-john it is then..

..eh..?

how can it not be..?

phil(whoar.co.nz)

Whoar, would it be in Advanced Cooking and Baking Techniques? Easily attainable for a loafer of your experience.

I work everyday except most Sundays, there have been times in recent years where I have worked 118, 96 & 127 days in a row (ten to twelve hour days at that)

I do all that so I can feed my family, care for my pets, recuse, rehabilitate and re-home dogs that have been abused (mostly by beneficiary low life) and donate to causes that mean so very much to me.

What I resent with a passion is having my money stolen from me to pay for the likes of you and that Fuller maggot to live the life of leisure.

What you do is not work Phool, what you do is borderline child abuse given the pathetic example you are setting for your kids, it is bad enough that you smoke and take drugs in their presence yet you have the bare faced cheek to claim that you cannot work because nobody will be there for them in the school holidays.

You are symptomatic of all that is wrong with this fucked up country Phool, I did warn you that when the hard times came the average Kiwi would turn against the bludgers in our society, well you and that Fuller parasite have kicked off that debate and it is a debate that we are long overdue in having.

Enjoy it while it lasts Phool, it will not change under Neville Key but it will change under the leadership of the next National PM and when that days comes I will laugh in your face, Crusher Collins is going to be your worst nightmare Phool, and man, am I going to enjoy that!

No freakin’ shit Sherlock. It doesn’t take long before debate-worthy topics become hijacked with illegible drivel displayed by the more authoritarian posters (from the left (philu) and right(rb)). It happens every single day.

Personally, I like Paula Bennett. She is forthright and ambitious, and even though she was a beneficiary herself she decide to get her a into g and make a good career and life outlook. She has made some poor decisions (even since becoming a minister), but hey we’re still human.

Mind you, is there some sort of confidentiality clause on the contract when applying for a benefit?

aside from onanism..?

(and you don’t really need another hand for that..?..eh..?)

phil(whoar.co.nz)

We had a rule for when the kids wanted something, “you pay half.” So they always had jobs, were always planning ahead, knew getting stuff took work and figured out what was worth working for and what wasn’t.