“What drives people using P?” asks Harry Tam, who works with hard-to-reach
Maori (Plan to cash in on our gangs, June 15), and says, "it's poverty”.
Isn’t it time we asked what drives poverty? Material poverty is worst in
single parent families - 28% of all families with dependent children. And then
there’s emotional poverty, shown by more than 90% of our ballooning prison
population having a lifetime diagnosis of a substance use or mental disorder.
Growing up with a step-parent (or serial step-parents) is the biggest predicator for future imprisonment. Because solo parents have such a horrible row to
hoe we tip-toe around them, blaming housing costs, low wages, unemployment and
insufficient benefits – anything but their solo state.
But to reduce physical and emotional poverty, we need government policies supporting the
best insurance for our children’s future. More than anything
else children need two parents, committed to them and to each other in marriage.
It seems that for children, going without a father equates with going
without their daily bread.
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