Southland Times on Ministry for Children
May 23rd, 2011 at 12:00 pm by David FarrarThe Southland Times editorial:
Suffer the little children to come unto … a brand new Government minister, all of their own.
Labour Deputy Leader Annette King proposes that a senior minister – and also that must-have accessory that no minister should be seen without; a ministry – be created to co-ordinate and focus all that national goodwill we have towards our kids in a more coherent, rewarding way.
The immediate sniff is that what kids really need isn’t more bureaucracy to lumber around on their behalf.
I am sure kids around the country are celebrating that they mey get their own ministry.
Ms King says the new ministry’s job would be to make sure “that children are a priority not just in theory, but in practice”. This would clearly distinguish it from the agenda of the Families Commission and the Children’s Commissioner, which was to fatten them up to be baked into pies.
And the Children’s Commissioner is independent – can attack the Government. A CEO of a Ministry for Children can not.
Neither will it pass without public comment that Ms King proposes a minister and a department in advance of any new policy regarding what they would do. It is a terribly hard sell to convince the public that ministers and ministries are a good idea in and of themselves. Or that it’s one of those Field of Dreams deals. If you build the ministry, the smart ideas will come …
It reminds me of the Yes Minister episode – a hospital with no patients. Instead it is a Ministry with no policy.
Related posts:
- A Ministry for Children
- A Ministry for children?
- Southland Times on the parliamentary fugitives
- Southland Times on Labour’s stop campaign
May 23rd, 2011 at 12:10 pm
This editorial sums it up well. The labour party derivers it’s policy inspiration from civil servants because they have no ideas of tneir own. Yes minister cleverly described government departments as tombstones for some political problem. Annette king thinks creating a government department for children solves the political problem of child abuse and other issues.
Vote:May 23rd, 2011 at 12:33 pm
Great. Even more nationalisation of children.
Can I suggest to Ms King, that if she really wants to help the children, a Ministry of Marriage would be a better way to go. Married, committed parents are far more likely to make their children a priority than those who shack up temporarily, and much better for their children than having even more state employees looking over our shoulders.
Vote:May 23rd, 2011 at 12:37 pm
I didn’t realise that we had any journalists with the wit to do sarcasm.
Vote:May 23rd, 2011 at 12:37 pm
mmmmmmmmmmmm…….pies!
Vote:May 23rd, 2011 at 12:41 pm
It really does appear that they have found a solution to a problem that does not exist. You’d wonder what long night drinking session gave birth to this little monster?
Get rid of the womens affairs ministry – - women have surpassed men with regards to education so surely it is irrelevant? Even better, convert it to the ‘mens’ affairs ministry ha ha.
Get rid of horse racing minister.
Destroy the families commission.
That would be too radical for John Key though.
Vote:May 23rd, 2011 at 12:42 pm
Where the hell is the ministry of podgy middle-aged white blokes eh???
Bleeding discrimination that’s what that is.
Vote:May 23rd, 2011 at 12:52 pm
Lucia Maria – great idea! Christian Dogma can solve nearly as many problems as Big Gummint dogma.
What would your Ministry of Marriage do in the event that married parents divorce?
(1) Prosecute them
Vote:(2) Tut-tut loudly
(3) Send her a copy of the Ministry’s pamphlets “Love him even though he hits you” and “Stay with him even though he drinks/gambles the grocery budget away”
(4) Other: ____________________(what)
May 23rd, 2011 at 12:52 pm
Lucia – Ministry of Marriage (MOM) would be interesting mom om nom nom nom…
Vote:May 23rd, 2011 at 12:53 pm
I too am surprised a Ministry for Men’s Affairs has never been suggested but I really like Lucia’s idea of a Ministry for Marriage or to slightly extend it, a Ministry for Family Affairs.
A Ministry that works to strengthen the family unit of two parents and children, reduce the divorce and separation and unmarried couples rates, educate parents on things like safe internet practices, et al.
Great idea, Lucia.
I wonder why Liarbore didn’t think of that?
Vote:May 23rd, 2011 at 1:02 pm
Because they are ideologically opposed to the traditional family reid.
Since RRM is against its probably a bloody good idea.
Vote:May 23rd, 2011 at 1:17 pm
Well, seems to me that if I’m opposed to the Families Commission and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs on the grounds that they’re an utter waste of money….I could hardly support a Ministry of Marriage or a Ministry of Men’s Affairs – they’d equally be a waste of money. Better to focus on getting rid of the wasteful Ministries, rather than jumping on a bandwagon asking for new ones.
Vote:May 23rd, 2011 at 1:37 pm
There is already plenty of lobbying for children from the Families Commission to the Children’s Commissioner to Dept of Social Welfare.
What is more important is ensuring that reasonable genes get passed on to the next generation so you don’t have an Idiocracy. Making it affordable for smart women to have children should be a focus.
“Caplan points to scientific evidence to support the idea of “serenity parenting”. Research on twins and on adopted children shows, he says, that parents’ long-term effects range from small to zero for a wide range of outcomes such as health and success. “For life expectancy, you see no effect of parenting. You might say, ‘Well, who thought parents affected life expectancy?’ Parents can nag you all they want, but when you’re an adult you’re going to do your own thing.”
Research also shows that a child’s intelligence can be increased by parental interaction when they are very young, but by the time the child reaches 12 the effect has disappeared. “You need to look at adopted kids – that actually does measure how much parents matter and how much heredity matters.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/may/15/parenting-less-fuss-more-fun
Vote:May 23rd, 2011 at 1:56 pm
Why nor have a Super-Ministry for political problems.
Vote:May 23rd, 2011 at 2:21 pm
One quote from the announcement is:
What is going to happen when a Child Impact Report and the required consultation with iwi result in one or the other having to be compromised?
Vote:May 23rd, 2011 at 2:31 pm
What about a Ministry of Ministries ?
Vote:May 23rd, 2011 at 3:12 pm
Because they are ideologically opposed to the traditional family reid.
Yes it was a rhetorical question Murray.
Few understand the true magnitude of Liarbore in particular Hulun’s wicked designs, very very few. It’s not just little things individually, it’s a whole package of changes that have fundamental effects on people’s lives and structural enabling mechanisms such as the Supreme Court stacking starting with Elias CJ, which will perpetuate and expand on them for decades to come. You watch. All designed as you say, to undermine the integrity of the family unit so people look to the state and not to their family, as their primary support mechanism. Straight out of the Commie playbook and the useless MSM have never connected the dots and told the story to the useful idiots – most of NZ – for whom it just passes by like a ship in the night.
In fact the MSM are so very stupid they even perpetuate the counter-myth designed specifically to stop people from waking up to all of this – that Hulun was in fact, the best PM NZ has ever had. Another ploy, straight out the Commie playbook. You saw a completely different example of this very same technique, when Hulun disguised her military de-fanging with an apparently assiduous and heartfelt public sharing and caring show designed specifically to show she cared deeply about Veteran’s Affairs, when what she really cared about was not having the media notice what was happening on the procurement front.
Vote:May 23rd, 2011 at 3:48 pm
Perhaps a ministry of brain dead politicians, a bureaucrats dream ministry, plenty of potential for growth.
Vote:May 23rd, 2011 at 4:21 pm
Given Labours track record this ministrys purpose will be to further undermine parental authority and advance the state interference in the lives of families. Not that the nats are any better.
Vote:May 23rd, 2011 at 4:27 pm
When a politican proposes a new Ministry and therefore Government Department you know they have well and truly run out of any idea of how to fix the problem.
We saw this is Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister described by Maggie Thatcher as a documentary.
After 40 years of seeking to destroy the traditional family unit the Socialists have created a monster. We of the traditional family where Dad goes out to work and earn money and Mum works in the house to support Dad and the Kids are now a minority.
Working Mums after all those decades of feminazis are just slaves.
They have to try and hold down a full time job whilst doing all the house hold stuff as well. Wheres their work life balance.
I dont see it. Instead I see a bunch of exhausted women who crack under the strain and become solo Mums with even more problems than before and no husband to support them.
We have lost our way as a nation. Our politicans have broken the traditional family unit to staisfy their own personal twisted agenda.
they have waged fiscal warfare on the traditional family unit by takeing away the tax breaks enjoyed by families up to the 1970s.
Bit by bit that have broken down our society so we now have no values no morals no ethics. We are a nation of losers and takers.
There is no discipline no consquences just ME ME ME MY RIGHTS MY RIGHTS MY RIGHTS
Pathetic losers!!!!
Vote:May 23rd, 2011 at 4:34 pm
@reid 3:12. Completely agree. For the last 30 years the state has ‘allowed’ parents to relinquish their parental responsibilities, and simply usurped those responsibilities when relinquishment didn’t appear to be happening.
@ssb 3:48. Hey, how about a ministry of Black Holes? We could merge lots of other ministries with it
Vote:May 24th, 2011 at 6:59 am
An interesting problem for labour. If there is a ministry for children then, presumably, there will be expectations of achievement. Why otherwise would you have a ministry? How do you measure achievements without standards?
Vote:If you are going to have standards for raising kids, then maybe we should have them for educating them. We could call them National Standards. Sell that to NZEI, Annette. Or is this just a cheap political stunt designed to appeal to fuzzy wuzzy populistic views and which will bow immediately before the ideology of labour’s ploitical mates? And if it is such a good idea now, why wasn’t it a good idea when the country was outraged at the murder of our children under labour’s watch?
May 24th, 2011 at 10:41 am
Will socialist Labour be putting Peter Davis, David Benson-Pope or Darren Hughes up for CEO of this new ministry?
Vote: