Anti-children policies rapped

New Zealand's first ever Children's Commissioner has turned on both major political parties for pushing mothers back to work too soon.

Dr Ian Hassall, commissioner from 1989 to 1994, told a child summit in Hamilton yesterday that mothers should not be financially or socially coerced into the paid workforce.

He attacked Prime Minister Helen Clark for her opening speech to Parliament this year about women's participation in the paid workforce.

He also criticised National leader Don Brash's Orewa speech about getting solo mothers off the domestic purposes benefit.

"There is a financial and social coercion for people to return to the workforce after their children are born. That is wrong," he said.

Dr Hassall, who teaches social policy at the AUT, is involved in the Every Child Counts drive to place children at the centre of party policy.

He said women should not be told that they were bludgers if they stayed at home with young children.

"They should be told that this is a recognised, respectable way of life - to raise children," he said.

"It is very strange that we have to say this, that we have come to this."

He said the parties should help parents to give every child the best start in life by providing longer paid parental leave, better-funded services such as Plunket nurses, and "financial support so parents can make a genuine choice about the relationships and experiences their children receive in the early years".

" The leaders of the two main parties, in agenda-setting speeches, chose to speak about getting more women into the workforce," he said.

"I'm not knocking that. But missing from their discussion was children's interests. The discussion revolved around economic productivity, gender equity, limitations on welfare spending, welfare dependency, personal choice. Where were children in all of that?

"To the credit of our population, there was a backlash against that - people said, 'What about the kids?"'

He said later that his two daughters found it "extraordinarily difficult" to decide whether it was okay to stay at home after having children.

"They are torn between spending time with children and they are told they should be developing careers.

" It has to be possible for real choices to be made. At the moment that's not true."

Dr Hassall said "technical changes" such as assistance for parents at home, better daycare and more flexible working hours would all help, but parents would not have a real choice until society made children central in its thinking.

He suggested that New Zealand should follow the example of the Australian state of Victoria and appoint a Cabinet minister for children, with a dedicated children's policy unit.

He said a year's paid parental leave was "a minimum".

"Babies' sleeping patterns are not settled until they are about a year old, so you really have to be with them over that time," he said.

"It's in that first year that they [attach to] another person. All of that stuff is abandoned if people at home are not there most of the time."

He said the idea a mother could make up for lost time with her kids with "quality time" was "hogwash".

"People think, 'I can only spend so much time with my kids so I'd better do something intensive.' Children just want someone to be around."