Adoption no answer says Clark

Don Brash

A suggestion by Don Brash that adoption should be more acceptable than the DPB has been described as "unfortunate" by Prime Minister Clark.

Green MP Sue Bradford said Dr Brash had no idea of the life-long trauma inflicted on unwed mothers who adopted out their babies before the domestic purposes benefit.

And Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia, whose granddaughter had a baby at the age of 16, said a supportive family was the most important thing for young people facing parenthood.

The National Party leader said in his Orewa speech on welfare dependency that adoption had become a "totally unacceptable" option and should be considered.

Yesterday he said young women were presented with only two options, abortion or the DPB. Adoption also should be considered, he said.

Helen Clark said that while many loving parents who had adopted children had done a wonderful job, "I think we need to support people to keep their babies".

Mrs Turia said the most important thing for young people who had children was to have good support "and the majority of them do".

She and her husband, George, had brought up children under the whangai family fostering practice.

And one of her granddaughters also had a baby very young, at 16.

Mrs Turia's son and wife and family gathered around the granddaughter and supported her, she went on to study and now aged 20 has just completed a teaching diploma.

Dr Brash set a goal to reduce the number of beneficiaries from 300,000 to 200,000 in 10 years and focused particularly on domestic purposes beneficiaries, 40 per cent of whom are Maori.

That was a concern to Mrs Turia. "Of course it is of concern to me that we are a people that clearly have become dependent on the state.

"We've got a lot of work to do to restore confidence in ourselves that we don't need to depend on the state. We need to have investment in our people so they be productive citizens."

But it had to be seen in context. Maori also made a huge contribution to the country.

"People need to realise that our economic base was stolen from us and that it has had a huge impact on many, many families."

Maori women also made the largest voluntary contribution to the country of any group according to the last census, taking care of elderly members of the family and volunteering in kohanga reo.

"So we do also save the state a lot of money - but there is never a focus on that."

The Government moved swiftly to counter Dr Brash's attack, publishing a 30-page rundown of social policy development and a point-by-point response.

- additional reporting Ainsley Thomson