Saturday 19 June 2010

Senator Fielding proves once more that he is barking mad

Senator Steve Fielding, that born-again political nong from Victoria, appears to think that pregnant women on welfare payments would be eligible for paid parental leave from a full-time job that they don't actually have; similarly that drug addicts would deliberately get pregnant to get paid parental leave for which most would be ineligible anyway; women locked away at the pleasure of Her Maj are in full-time employment; that sex-workers are not entitled to benefits paid to other workers because of their job description; and that all late term abortions are obviously some form of fiscal fiddle.
Stevo's a good example for the argument that political candidates should prove mental competency before their names go on a ballot paper.
Mrs. Fielding - how about doing us all a favour and lock your boy in the back shed whenever Parliament is sitting.
Here's OpenAustralia record of the Senate second reading debate on 16th June 2010:
Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Hansard source
I believe we should be increasing the assistance we give to families with children, because having children is expensive and families need all the help they can get. But the Rudd government’s Paid
Parental Leave scheme goes about doing this in the wrong way. The scheme is a long, long way from perfect. Instead of having a policy that benefits all families, such as the baby bonus, the government has come up with a scheme that discriminates against parents, depending on how they choose to raise their children. It is a scheme that places higher value on mothers who leave their children in child care, to quickly return to the workforce within a few months after having a baby, and devalues mothers who want to spend more time at home looking after their children. It is a policy that gives money to prisoners and prostitutes but ignores stay-at-home mums and the important unpaid work that they do. Mums who stay at home and look after their kids will be about $2,000 worse off because of the decision than those mums who rush back to the workforce.........
Another huge flaw in the bill is the fact that people who have late-term abortions would still be eligible to receive paid parental leave payments. That is right. Under this bill drug addicts and welfare cheats can rort the system and get paid parental leave money for nothing. Drug addicts and welfare cheats can get pregnant, then after 20 weeks have an abortion and still pocket the government’s cash. It is absolutely ridiculous and it makes you wonder whether the government is making policy on the run again.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fielding was not the first to raise this concern in the Senate. I would like to know who the other two were. We know Fieding can be far out. What do we know about the others.

Petering Time said...

No-one, not even Senator Cory Bernardi (LIB), went so far as the very strange Senator Fielding (IND).
In fact Bernardi only sought to distinguish between stillbirth and late term abortion in the bill's wording.
While Senator Ron Boswell (NATS)was concerned about late term abortions in relation to paid parental leave, he didn't talk of addicts, welfare cheats, prisoners, either.
Both Bernardi and Boswell were speaking in committee, not on the floor of the Senate.
http://www.openaustralia.org/senate/?id=2010-06-16.14.1&s=%22late+term+abortion%22+speaker%3A10038#g28.1
The barking mad crown is still firmly on Steve Fielding's head.