Reality Shock For United Future
Last year, United Future voted to further entrench the DPB's role in society , said Lindsay Mitchell, speaking on behalf
of a group fighting for a Parliamentary review of this benefit. "Now, ironically, their family affairs spokeswoman, Judy
Turner, is highlighting the problems faced by the growing number of grandparents left raising their grandchildren with
no financial help."
"Since launching a petition calling for the DPB to be reviewed I have been contacted by many grandparents with similar
stories to those Ms Turner describes. She mentions how often the grandparents are contested for custody, at their
expense, because the children would provide a source of income to their mother or father. She mentions grandparents left
to raise their grandchildren because of family breakdown. She mentions a daughter's partner threatening violence to
grandparents should they reveal a false application for the DPB."
"I agree with Judy Turner that while the current system endures those grandparents should be helped BUT even more
importantly, the culture surrounding the DPB has to go. It is the culture of producing children from casual, fragile or
even one-off relationships that brings so much grief to grandparents."
" In addition to those grandparents who are left to pick up the pieces, thousands more never get to see their
grandchildren because the mother, having broken relations with the father, also breaks with his parents. It is
heartbreaking for these people."
"It is regrettable that Judy Turner hadn't been exposed to these realities before she convinced her party to vote to
make the DPB more attractive," Mitchell concluded.
Lindsay Mitchell
Petitioner for a Parliamentary Review of the DPB
e-mail dandl.mitchell@clear.net.nz ph/fx 04 562 7944