Richard Moore's Straight Talk Columns

Defaulters should be named and shamed

20/7/2010

ONCE again it has taken an international expert to shine the light on a problem in this country because people in power here just don't want to see it.

Dr Monika Queisser, head of social policy for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, says child poverty is of great concern with 15 per cent of Kiwi kids are living in families on less than half the median income. The OECD average is 12 per cent.

Many of the children in poverty will be there because they belong to single parents on benefits like the DPB, or those on sickness benefits.

When you consider the huge numbers of working poor in New Zealand - courtesy of low wages and outrageous costs for petrol, food and utilities - it's no surprise those on the Government handouts are even worse off.

And of course there are those parents who somehow keep their children despite spending more on booze and smokes than they do on food and clothes for their little benefit-earners.

But there is another reason for kids living in poverty and that is fathers who do not pay their child support.

New Zealand's 176,000 child-support dodgers owe an astounding $1.8 billion, with 121,500 behind in their payments.

That is money that would make quite a difference to their children's lives.

Now I know there are many occasions where guys get absolutely shafted over child-support and there are times you'd rather eat your own vomit than give a cent to an ex who is with someone else, or taken you to the cleaners in a divorce case. But, and it is a big but, you must always think of the welfare of your kids before wishing great harm on the evil one.

I saw know of a classic case where a woman was dumped with two kids - in a time before domestic benefits were even thought of - and got paid the absolute minimum pittance by the very wealthy father. She copped it on the chin, worked full-time night shift and had to pretty much foster the kids out during the week.

That was 40-plus years ago and things have just got worse.

Take for example the company owner who owes his ex a huge amount of dosh because he runs all his income through the firm's books, has a lot of ``expenses'' and so earns almost nothing to be assessed on.

We won't mention the new large house he owns or the fine vehicles. He is in default over child-support payments to the tune of a high four-figure sum.

His ex, who is a salary earner, can't escape the hands of the taxman, who forces her to pay child support in return despite the fact she is owed so much. While his earnings are not touched, if she defaults it could be garnished from her salary.

That, in my less-than-humble opinion, sucks.

Defaulters should be named and shamed and their bank accounts frozen until they pay up.

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As we wave goodbye to Tauranga's chief pen pusher Stephen Town the search must start for a new CEO.

Town earned way over $340,000 a year for his time at the helm of SS Tauranga, which is something like $900 for each employee under his command.

One can only hope that when new CEO is appointed the bureaucrat doesn't earn anywhere near the salary Town did.

Why should the CEO of the country's fifth biggest city earn more than the prime minister, particularly when we should be looking to spend ratepayers' money much more carefully?

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Now this makes me sick to my stomach.

A drug smuggler, who swallowed a condom filled with heroin before flying to New Zealand, is fighting having to pay $28,000 to Christchurch Hospital for the life-saving operation to remove the package.

The Vietnamese student - who is in jail for six months over the smuggling attempt - cannot afford to pay the dosh, according to his lawyer. So the Kiwi hospital, which no doubt could have spent that $28,000 on helping a New Zealander, is having to sue the guy in the civil courts with not much chance of success.

What should have happened is that they left the condom in Tri Phan's gut, waited for it to be eaten away, and then allowed him to die nastily from the poison he was peddling.

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My goodness. Did you know that around this day in 1935 the good burghers of Oklahoma City took advantage of a brilliant invention and installed the world's first parking meters?

Ratbags!