Pay parents to stay home, urges Family First lobby group

Family First will lobby the Government to pay parents to stay at home and look after their own kids.

Six in 10 people support this idea, according to a new poll.

“This result is a slap in the face to the policies by National and Labour governments to get both parents back to work and children in to daycare as quickly as possible,” Family First’s national director Bob McCoskrie said.

“Families still understand the importance of nurture, attachment and the physical presence of a fulltime parent during those early crucial years of a child’s life.”

Government spending on early childhood education (ECE) is more than $1.7 billion a year, it is essential the benefits of its investment are weighed against the real needs of very young children and babies, and their families, McCoskrie said.

“Mothers have been undervalued, and many parents use daycare because they simply can’t afford not to. Stay-home parenting has been discriminated against by the state.”

Last April, National increased paid parental leave to 18 weeks.

In June, Labour MP Sue Moroney’s bill to extend this to 26 weeks was vetoed after its third reading in Parliament.

It had the numbers to pass into law, but no vote was held because then-Finance Minister Bill English had already said he would exercise a financial veto.

Jacinda Ardern, Labour’s spokesperson for children, believed more choices needed to be available for new parents, but thought keeping ECE subsidies was important.

“Every family has different needs but there are educational benefits of children being taught by professionals,” she said.