No contraception no dole says former Labor MP
News.com.au reports:
NO contraception, no dole – that’s the view of an ex-Labor Minister who believes welfare should be linked to compulsory contraception.
Gary Johns, writing in The Australian, suggests there should be “no taxpayer inducement to have children”.
The former MP who served in the Keating government admits such a measure will “undoubtedly affect strugglers, [and] … Aboriginal and Islander people in great proportions”.
“But the idea that someone can have the taxpayer, as of right, fund the choice to have a child is repugnant.”
Welfare should be there for people who have a child and then lose some of their income through a split, redundancy etc. It should not be there for people already on welfare unable to support their existing children, to continue having more children.
The ex-Minister claims “it is better to avoid having children until such time as parents can afford them”.
That’s what 90% of families do. They time having children to when they can afford it, and they limit the number to what they can afford. But around 10% just have child after child on welfare, as taxpayers get them more and more money. We should limit welfare so that if you are already on welfare, you don’t get additional welfare payments if you have further children on welfare.