Brash's adoption solution to DPB

Don Brash

Adopting babies out should be a more acceptable alternative to the domestic purposes benefit, especially for teenage girls, says National Party leader Don Brash.

His suggestion, made last night in a hard-hitting state-of-the-nation speech on welfare dependency, is reminiscent of one in the 1980s made by former National Finance Minister Ruth Richardson, for which she was vilified by the left.

The theme of Dr Brash's long-awaited speech to the Orewa Rotary Club in a stiflingly hot hall in Silverdale was that too many working families battled all their lives to support others who were not making a similar effort.

He set a goal for a National government to reduce the number of working-age adults on benefits from 300,000 to 200,000 over 10 years. But his speech gave particular attention to the 109,000 - mainly women - on the DPB, which costs nearly $1.6 billion a year.

"Why should Kiwi families battling to get ahead in life, working hard and coping with the pressures of raising a family and paying off the mortgage, have to support numerous people who are not making a similar effort?"

He didn't use the word "bludgers" but said "ripping off the system just seems to be taken for granted by too many people".

"The DPB has been allowed to become a career option for far too many, and a way of allowing men to avoid their responsibilities."

He had a "deep sense of discomfort" with the policy that allowed domestic purposes beneficiaries who had more children and extended the benefit entitlement to age 18 to be financially better off than the "hard-working young couples who have their children as they can afford to" and paid taxes to fund the DPB.

Referring to adoption as one way of reducing the call on the benefit, Dr Brash said: "Ultimately, reducing the number of those on the DPB must be about finding ways of strengthening families, about educating people about the responsibilities of parenthood, about taking a tougher line on the responsibilities of non-custodial parents (while improving access for those non-custodial parents) and about acknowledging adoption as an acceptable option, particularly for teenage girls."

After the speech, he told reporters that adoption had almost become unacceptable and while it was not necessarily a preference, it should be considered.

Dr Brash said an indefinite state handout had come to be seen by far too many as a birthright.

"We are developing a culture where, when people leave a relationship, too many take it for granted that the first port of call is not their own savings or their family but the Winz office."

If Work and Income wanted them to look for a job, too many made a beeline for the doctor and used standover tactics to obtain a medical certificate, which gave them access to a sickness benefit, he said.

The Government announced a new welfare initiative yesterday allowing doctors to seek a second opinion on suspect sickness and invalid benefit applications.

The system will be trialled in Wellington from late February until June and introduced nationally from June-July.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said yesterday that "a set of slogans about one policy area does not a government make".

"You have to do better than that."

The Government's record in moving people from welfare to work was "simply outstanding", she said. The 3.8 per cent unemployment rate was the lowest in the 18 years the official rate had been recorded.

Dr Brash was greeted by about a dozen protesters from the Unite Union and Alliance party, chanting that he should "stop the war on the poor".

* Phones run hot

88 per cent of the 9534 people who responded to a Close Up @ 7 poll said yes to the question: "Do you think Don Brash is on the right track with welfare?"