Free Australia

Housing Minister Jennifer Rankine in justifying the government’s latest cash grab of charging children rent stated "Families in private rental or home ownership will often ask children to contribute to rent or (houshold) bills as their income increases".[1]  

The FREE Australia Party considers this policy to be yet another example of a government seeking to play parent to its constituents.  The Housing Minister Jennifer Rankine is correct in her statement, but what she fails to acknowledge is that the key word in her justification is "families".  It is families and not government that ask children to put in some money to the household as a way of teaching personal responsibility, it is families who in so doing strengthen that family bond and provide a familial reason for doing so that is not based upon an obvious cash grab.  The FREE Australia Party considers that by implementing this policy the government is usurping the role of parent by arbitrarily removing that choice from parents.  This is a divisive policy which will negatively impact the family unit.

References:

[1] http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/government-charges-employed-teens-to-stay-at-home/story-e6frea6u-1226089328301 {acessed 07.06.11)