Her views are expressed a report Child Poverty and Family Structure that she has written for Family First, published Monday.

Mitchell says child poverty is consistently blamed on unemployment, low wages, high housing costs and inadequate social security benefits.

Little attention has been given to family structure.

"But if there is to be any political will to solve child poverty the issue has to be confronted."

Mitchell says rapidly changing family structure has contributed significantly to increasing income inequality.

She says it is not the intention of her paper to explore at length why marriage has fallen out of favour with most social science academics and policy-makers.

"The aim has been to show that marriage provides the best economic environment for
raising children," she says.

Mitchell argues that "The evidence is overwhelming and incontrovertible."

Who is Lindsay Mitchell?

Her blogsite says she has been researching and commenting on welfare since 2001.

Many of her articles have been published in mainstream media and she has appeared on radio,tv and before select committees discussing issues relating to welfare.

She is also an artist who works under commission and exhibits at Wellington, New Zealand, galleries.

The report is endorsed by Dr Michael Bassset a former Labour minister of health, Dr Stuart Birks, a Fellow of the Law and Economics Association of New Zealand, and Dr Don Brash, former Governor of the Reserve Bank and former leader of the National Party and the Act party.

Media Response

• Family First research 'high school level' statistics, academic says (Stuff.co.nz)
• Family First blames child poverty on divorce and single parents (NZ Herald)
• Lobby group Family First blames unmarried couples for child poverty (Stuff.co.nz)

Source

• familyfirst.org.nz
• familyfirst.org.nz
• blogger.com
• Image: familyfirst.org.nz

Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the head of the Italian Bishops Conference, said that civil unions between gay men and women only serve to "confuse people" and undermine traditional family life.

This is especially so if the couples go on to have children, either through adoption or through donor methods, he added.

Cardinal Bagnasco's warning comes only weeks after an interim report from the synod on the family had praised the "gifts" gays and lesbians offer the Church.

It also noted the "precious support" same-sex partners give to one other.

These statements did not make it into the final report from the synod.

But Cardinal Bagnasco told a meeting of Italian bishops in Assisi that "it is irresponsible to weaken the family by creating new forms".

"It only confuses people and has the effect of being a sort of Trojan horse, undermining culturally and socially the core of humanity," The Telegraph reported him saying.

Children "have a right to a mother and a father", Cardinal Bagnasco told the bishops.

Cardinal Bagnasco's remarks were interpreted as an attack on the increasing number of mayors in Italy who have recently made a point of recognising gay marriages performed overseas.

Same-sex marriage is illegal in Italy, but couples who have tied the knot in foreign countries have sought recognition from their local councils by registering their unions in town halls.

The action by mayors around the country earned a rebuke from Angelino Alfano, who is both deputy prime minister and interior minister.

Last month he ordered mayors to stop recognising gay marriages performed in other countries.

A survey last year showed that 85 per cent of Italians supported the idea of recognising civil unions which give same-sex partners more rights.

But the same poll showed that only 25 per cent were in favour of full gay marriage.

Sources

• The Telegraph
• CNN
• Image: National Catholic Reporter

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