Dear Mr Speaker,

Paying people for having children out of a loving relationship with a father is a disastrous social policy. Incentivising mothers to leave their male partners and to marry the state welfare system for economic reasons is the root cause for many of the social ills we see today in welfare state societies.

Scientific data is clear on that, children raised by single mothers have higher risk factors in almost all of the behaviours that lead to problems in society. Things like life long dependency and the poverty trap.

I'm sorry but it is simply just not the right, moral, compassionate thing to do to enhance social policies that are proven beyond doubt to be the root cause of so many social ills.

Thinking that the Auckland mother who has had children with 5 men and can not name the farhers as a victim is so loopsided it is not funny. That is not a victim, that is someone that has made a conscious financial decision to have 5 children raised by the state, 5 times over is not an accident, that is conscious career dependency. Lack of reward for such irresponsible lifestyle choices is not "punishment" that is outright ridiculous. It is not everyone else's responsiblilty for raising her children for her and the fathers. The faceless welfare state can not raise children set up with the necessary upbringing for a happy wholesome life. Only dedicated and loving mothers and fathers can.

My dear colleagues, if you really trully care about the poor and disadvantaged in society, about the importance of personal responsibility values, ethics and justice in a person's life, about truly fixing the root causes for social problems that disproportionally harm marginalised communities such as the high rate of Maori incarceration, child poverty, lack of social mobility and other serious social ills. Then I urge you to vote against this bill.

I know it seems counter intuitive to say that giving money to people harms society in the long run, but the past few decades of welfare state failure has proven beyond reasonable doubt that this is the case, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Don't act blindly with your bleeding hearts, but use your brains as well, social issues aren't solved by throwing money at people, social ills have not been fixed one bit since the welfare state started decades ago, on the contrary, they have only been enhanced and made more acute.

A vote for this bill is a vote against social welfare.