In support of no child in poverty

Up a tree and bear-ly hanging on!

A former Australian Labor Prime Minister, Bob Hawke once famously said that no child in Australia would be living in poverty by... well so long ago now that it doesn't matter. The aim is for things to improve in societies, and it is important to begin at the beginning. Childhood.

Ok, off-message a bit with regard to the purpose of this blog, but everything is connected and a parent with primary school aged children, trying to raise those children on their own, is perhaps now being punished for being in that position in the first place, treated as an easy target, a sin-carrier, a scapegoat. The latest policy with regard to financial assistance for sole parents and their children reinforces all of this, but will not help parents to raise themselves and their families out of poverty or social disadvantage. People end up in sole parent families for all sorts of reasons, and very few fit the common perjorative stereotypes popular in some quick-grab media stories.

This weekend a grass-roots movement is protesting the latest (significant) cuts to the already tiny allowance available to sole parents in order to raise their children. They are placing bears all around the place - look out for them in your Australian town or city. It's a peaceful awareness-raising exercise.

A single policy decision can affect one or more generations of a country's citizens and can have a detrimental flow-on effect to everyone. Yes, work is good, but when a parent is trying to care for the needs of young children with little or no other family support, more help is needed, not less. Give a man or woman a fish and you feed them for a day, teach them to fish and you feed them for a lifetime. But if you give them a decent feed and enable them to get to the fishing spot, they will be able to think more clearly and have a much better chance of success at feeding their families for a lifetime, and of ensuring that the next generation thrives.