Statistics and surveys may show that getting hitched is falling out of fashion but, as soon as children come along, every woman would rather be wed. Are you sitting comfortably? Or at least sitting? Because further down this page I am going to make the sort of bold, incendiary statement that will divide – but Read more
Child poverty in New Zealand is unacceptably and unnecessarily high and it can be reduced, and it ought to be according to Professor Jonathan Boston. “Doing so would constitute a great investment in all our futures. But it will require public support, sensible policies, sustained effort and political will.” Boston says there are three myths about Child Poverty in Read more
Children will be the biggest losers in a review of the Family Court which recommends that the court’s highly successful counselling service be cut. This is despite the government framing proposed changes as ‘putting children first’. Catholic Social Services counsellor Gail Teale says it is likely couples who want to separate will bypass the court Read more
Growing up in poverty has pernicious, enduring, but preventable effects on children. Research suggests that poverty is the single greatest threat to child wellbeing. Its negative effects endure and escalate across the entire lifespan. It is concerning, therefore, that according to the recent report by the Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty, approximately Read more
A father’s love contributes as much — and sometimes more — to a child’s development as does a mother’s love. That is one of many findings in a new large-scale analysis of research about the power of parental rejection and acceptance in shaping our personalities as children and into adulthood. “In our half-century of international Read more
A recently released study suggesting children of same gender parents fare worse than others is flawed because it does not compare children living with parents in stable same gender relationships with children living with parents in stable heterosexual relationships. “In fact, only a small proportion of its sample spent more than a few years living Read more
The Philippines has failed to fully comply with the minimum standards to eliminate human trafficking and continues to be a venue for child sex tourism. In not complying, the Philippines remains in Tier 2 of the United States’ Global Trafficking in Persons’ report, a situation that Philippines Justice Secretary Leila de Lima described as “a Read more
If the the law is changed to allow same sex adoption will the new law treat female couples and male couples equally? Under existing law it is illegal for a single male to adopt a female. If the law is changed to allow same sex couples to adopt, will a male couple be allowed to Read more
There are many children living in poverty in the Bay of Plenty. They are being fed by Tauranga’s foodbank, presenting at hospital with serious skin infections and living in sub-standard conditions, according to school principals in the area. In Merivale, one of Tauranga’s poorest suburbs, families are living in over-crowded houses and illness is rife Read more
Take a look around you and, in cars, shopping centres and restaurants, chances are you’ll find young children engrossed, not in the world around them, but in their new digital reality. Australians have smartphones and tablet computers gripped in their sweaty embrace, adopting the new internet-enabled technology as the standard operating platform for their lives, Read more