Minister for Social Development, Mr Maharey, promised today, at the launch of the Agenda for Children , to end child poverty. "In a feel-good speech full of meaningless bureaucratic terminology like 'focussing on improving central government structures and processes to enhance policy and service effectiveness', he made no reference to the one government policy which is a leading cause of child poverty - the DPB," says Lindsay Mitchell, Petitioner for a Parliamentary review of the DPB.

"In contrast, Michael Bassett, ex Labour Minister, who appeared on last week's Assignment documentary about welfare, said that he doubted there would have been a single MP who would have voted for the DPB if they had known that the numbers receiving it would climb from 17,000 to a high of 120,000", Mrs Mitchell says."Of course, Dr Bassett is looking at the problem objectively, whereas Mr Maharey is visibly in vote seeking mode."

"Mr Maharey is a proponent of 'social justice' but Mr Maharey's 'social justice' is deliberately dressed up in the guise of ending poverty. Mr Maharey's 'social justice' has nothing to do with a sense of 'fairness' but everything to do with the abuse of political power to redistribute wealth. Whether this achieves a good outcome is ignored."

"We should bear this in mind as we go to the polls. Anyone genuinely concerned about child poverty should vote against the status quo."

Lindsay Mitchell
Petitioner for a Parliamentary review of the DPB

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