'ON YER, COSTELLO'

Costello has a new plan to save money.
He's going to take it away from bad parents.
What's the criteria for being a bad parent?

The Brotherhood of St. Laurence says one child in ten is living in relative poverty and one in seven is growing up in a household where no-one has a job.

Is this the criteria, not having a job?

Children living in poverty in this country is a disgrace and the report reads like something from the depression years.
Low birth weight, poor physical growth, mental health problems, suicide attempts and substance abuse.

Costello wants to cut welfare but is he going to put it into public health to help these children?

This is the government who wants abortion rates cut and families to have more children.

Families who have jobs (and that's both parents) but are still low income face a battle to feed, clothe and educate their children. Costello should come down from his ivory tower and shop on welfare or low income money.

Every one knows of a family where money goes on cigarettes, booze or gambling but how much does that count in bad parenting. Is is worse than sexual abuse or beatings?

Women earn less than men but have the same family responsibilities. Lesbian and gay parents are penalised by the Medicare safety net. Single mothers are going to have to juggle part-time work and childcare is way out of range for them so they're going to be made into bad parents.

To make the most of their potential, children have to be healthy in body and mind but they are living on the edge from an increasingly earlier age. Fresh fruit, vegetables, bread and milk are constantly increasing in price. It's less expensive to buy a package of chemically enhanced rubbish that fills an empty stomach. I remember the scenes of rotting oranges in the news this year. Why didn't the government use its surplus and buy this fruit and distribute it to schools in poorer areas?

Like everything else, pressure from above filters down and children are on the bottom catching the lot.

If this is the best you can come up with Costello, then you had better join Abbott on a slow boat to anywhere but here.

Children are supposed to be our future but not if your parents are poor enough to qualify as bad parents.