“We’re all to blame for child abuse,” declares Katherine Ransom, Social Issues Spokesperson for Democrats for social credit. “We have allowed real poverty to become entrenched in our land of plenty, while the top 10% of people get richer. Poverty and all that goes with it – overcrowding, poor housing, malnutrition, lack of skills, poor health – are directly related to domestic violence and child abuse.”
“No one would say an individual who abuses and kills a child should not be punished,” Ransom continues. “But it is all too easy for privileged people such as Michael Laws to blame Maori, or Kerry Woodham to call for ‘parenting classes to earn the DPB’. Neither addresses the real problem of poverty and disadvantage, which we are all responsible for.”
“It is ironic that there was such an outcry against the ‘anti-smacking bill’, yet so few of us can see that smacking children can easily go to the extreme when people are under stress. Poverty – long-term, multi-generational and hopeless – is the ultimate stress.”
“What policies do any of the parties in Parliament have to correct this shameful situation?” Ransom demands. “None can think beyond raising interest rates, which only impacts on the poorest even further. Where will the money come from when the rent goes up – the food budget? It is no surprise to me that the uptake on Kiwisaver is slow, when even middle class budgets are strapped.”
“What we need is a total rethink of the way we run our economy,” says Ransom. “Every individual should have an ownership stake in the country, and a share of the wealth through social credit. What are we doing instead? We are robbing our own people to line the pockets of overseas investors. We are selling off our assets, as witness Auckland airport.”
“As long as we continue down the present economic road, our precious children will pay with their lives. The ones who survive will grow up debt slaves in their own country.”
“We are all to blame for this national disgrace – poverty.”