What's the real cost of the Family Commission?

National Party Family spokeswoman Judith Collins is adamant that the $28 million spent on an election bribe to United Future could be much better spent elsewhere, where it would make a difference for real families. "National is convinced the Family Commission will be little more than another bureaucracy dishing out the kind of politically correct garbage that this Government is renowned for.

"It's an idea that's been seized on and now hijacked by Labour, as it looks to advance its social engineering agenda.

"Nowhere in the Families Commission brief is there a reference to two parent families. The closest reference is a drafting afterthought for the Commission to have 'a regard to a range of matters'.

"At a cost of $28.233 million, New Zealanders should be asking what sort of difference that money could make for real families in need.

"Used elsewhere, this could buy:
* 5.6 million hours of free childcare
* 2.18 million Plunket Line inquiries
* 357,379 booster seats
* 32 million 120g cans of Watties Stewed Apples (which is 294 for every child under the age of two in New Zealand)
* 2.9 million 20 packs of baby nappies
* 5.3 million hours of Early Childhood Education for under two's
* 55,000 inquiries by the Office of the Commissioner for Children
* 1.8 million free Births, Deaths & Marriages inquiries
* 627,400 two-year subscriptions to Kiwi Parent
* More than triple the amount of funding available for the Parents as First Teachers (PAFT) programme

"The National Party will not support the Family Commission. It's a blatant election bribe with taxpayer money that should be going into families, not another Government bureaucracy," says Ms Collins.

© Scoop Media