Garth George: Rankin's file is the right CV for families

The appointment of Christine Rankin to the Families Commission is inspired. As was the appointment of Paula Bennett as Minister of Social Development, who was instrumental in Ms Rankin's appointment.

We now have a four-times-married serial monogamist sitting on the Families Commission; and a West Auckland solo mum, whose unwed daughter presented her with a grandchild fathered by a gang-banger, running our vast social welfare edifice.

And that is as it should be in this modern age of everything-goes and a Parliament and bureaucracy cluttered with politically correct, namby-pamby politicians and civil servants.

It is to be hoped that Ms Rankin's appointment is only the first of many such to be made to government boards, commissions and so on who will neutralise the stultifying effects of the lefty liberals who so appealed to Labour and the Greens.

I have always liked Christine Rankin, whom I last met a couple of years ago when she was running the privately funded For the Sake of Our Children Trust. I enjoyed her stirring reign at Winz years ago but was unsurprised that she fell victim to her strait-laced, androgynous bosses.

What has surprised me is the extent and the viciousness of the hypocritical reaction to Ms Rankin's appointment. The publication of unfounded allegations made apropos her most recent marriage took New Zealand journalism to a new, cringe-making low.

Ms Rankin is an eccentric, and God knows there aren't enough of those in our midst any more. She speaks her mind, dresses as she pleases and isn't afraid to show off her femininity, and doesn't care a damn what most people think.

No doubt there are a handful of people in her world whose opinion of her she values highly, and whose loss of regard would be a sore affliction. But as far as the rest are concerned, they can go and get stuffed.

That's a philosophy I've lived for much of my life and the freedom of thought, word and deed it confers is immensely liberating.

Ms Rankin will, I hope, put a bomb under an organisation that has achieved bugger all, if anything.

Child abuse and family violence are still endemic in our society, in Maori society in particular, and that has not changed one iota since the Families Commission was established five years and millions of dollars ago.

In the furore over Ms Rankin, little has been written of the other vitally important appointment made to the commission, one which should also have far-reaching beneficial effect.

Bruce Pilbrow is chief executive officer of Parents Inc, which, as Parenting With Confidence, was founded back in 1993 by Ian and Mary Grant, an Auckland Christian couple for whom I have enormous respect and admiration.

In that time more than 170,000 people have attended Parents Inc programmes. Today it employs 35 permanent staff and has some 600 people around New Zealand trained as facilitators for one of its parenting programmes.

Its activities have expanded to include "Hot Tips" seminars, corporate seminars, "No Sweat" parenting events, "Toolbox" parenting groups, "Attitude" programmes for high schools and the publication of Parenting magazine.

Parents Inc - which, incidentally, I know to be utterly politically neutral - achieves more for families in a week than the Families Commission has in five years.

Mr Pilbrow, therefore, will bring a vast amount of expertise to his role as a families commissioner.

"The main thing I'll be bringing is a practical approach to helping families," Mr Pilbrow is reported as saying. "Of course research is important, and the commission has done that well, but my main passion is giving families the tools, ideas and inspiration to really do well. That's what we already do at Parents Inc, so my role as a commissioner will be a natural extension of that."

Parents Inc says that Mr Pilbrow's leadership has been characterised by a "can do" attitude, managing multiple projects and achieving big results from the slim resources that not-for-profit organisations have to cope with.

Mr Pilbrow says his work at the Families Commission will be challenging, but with his management experience in both business and community organisations he is looking forward to making a real contribution. "I see it as an opportunity to bring cohesion among all family-related agencies."

Between them, Ms Rankin and Mr Pilbrow will bring a breath of fresh air to the so-far ineffective brainchild of that inveterate political fence-jumper Peter Dunne. I'm not a bit surprised that Mr Dunne has expressed his displeasure at Ms Rankin's appointment since the last thing a fence-sitter needs is for someone to shake the fence.

That Prime Minister John Key has stood by his minister and the appointment of Ms Rankin says much for his political courage, and I am persuaded his support will in the end pay off big time for families.

* garth.george@hotmail.com