Lindsay Mitchell: Welfare destroying families

A report in the Investor's Business Daily says poverty is a class issue, not one of race. Prompted by the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, it describes how those people left behind in New Orleans were not only largely black and poor, they were largely women and children.

According to the Cato Institute, in New Orleans the out-of-wedlock birth rate is roughly 60 per cent.

Michael Tanner wrote in the Washington Times: "Study after study has shown the link between welfare payments and out-of-wedlock birth. Louisiana's welfare policies seem oblivious to this connection.

"Not only does the state have no cap on benefits for additional children born out of wedlock - a programme found to reduce illegitimacy in other states - but the state continues to offer benefits to set teen mothers up in homes of their own, 'independent' of their parents."

Sound familiar? Louisiana's policies are the same as New Zealand's.

In the wake of Katrina, many Americans are calling for more to be done about the levels of poverty in New Orleans.

The opposing view is that literally trillions have already been spent on poverty programmes, and the situation has only become more dire, with many black families condemned to greater dependence and vulnerability.

The report conjures up unavoidable parallels. We cannot avoid the fact that unmarried or unpartnered women with children are the poorest among us.

Households with one parent and dependent children have the lowest weekly incomes in New Zealand - only 43 per cent of the average.

Disproportionate statistics for the US black population mirror statistics for our Maori and Pacific Island population.

The term illegitimacy is a somewhat dated concept favoured by conservative Americans, and here it is pointed out that many children born out of wedlock still live with their co-habiting parents. So let's look at actual households.

At the last census, 44 per cent of Maori children, 31 per cent of Pacific Island and 20 per cent of New Zealand European were with a sole parent. If numbers on a benefit are any indication, the Maori figure has risen since 2001.

The US report asks whether the poverty of blacks is the result of racism and a legacy of slavery. The answer is no.

It is the result of welfare destroying the family, "by replacing the adult male as the father figure and main provider in the family and then rewarding illegitimacy with a bigger cheque".

Setting aside the legacy of slavery, the same question could be posed here. The answer remains the same.

Willie Jackson maintains on his Eye To Eye show that poverty is a race issue. It isn't.

The safeguards from poverty are education and a stable relationship. These are as important and as available to Maori and Pacific people as they are to any other group.

Unfortunately, and Pita Sharples highlighted this with his "benefit-mad" comment, Maori in particular are overly dependent on welfare.

There is another parallel invoked by the US report. The looting that took place was linked to the fact that neighbourhoods with a high rate of illegitimacy have a high rate of crime.

The links between fatherlessness and crime are beyond dispute. Our prison population reflects the higher rate of fatherlessness among Maori.

Encouraging fatherlessness is cruel, yet we persist.

In a sense we have experienced a "civil" disaster here. It's just been happening over a long period of time.

The remedy is still the same.

* Lindsay Mitchell is a petitioner for a Parliamentary review of the Domestic Purposes Benefit.