http://www.thepunch.com.au/tags/families/ Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. en Copyright 2013 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:00:10 +0000 Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:00:10 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/finally-some-relief-for-working-parents/ When I look back, I remember the years my four children were young as “The Dark Ages”. Not because they were terrible, in fact they were incredibly rewarding, but because life seemed to dissolve into a blur of shift work (my partner was then working as a chef), dropping kids off at kinder, school or childcare, and trying my hardest to be everything to everyone, a good mum at home and an effective nurse at work. I doubt we were the only couple to pop open a bottle of champagne the day our youngest started school. feedback@thepunch.com.au (The Punch Team) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/finally-some-relief-for-working-parents/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/finally-some-relief-for-working-parents/#item10587 Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:00:10 +0000 Hundreds of Australians die every year because of overcrowded hospitals. Children with disabilities struggle to get the help and equipment they need. Public schools are under-resourced. We don’t have a magic uber-highway to zip us around the country at the speed of sound. And yet we’re spending taxpayer’s cash on IVF for women in their 50s. Riddle me that. The news that a 60-year-old gave birth is the sort of thing that sees some people shudder while others are all high-fives and ‘you go girlfriend’ excited. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/an-age-old-question-on-taxpayer-funding-for-ivf/ Hundreds of Australians die every year because of overcrowded hospitals. Children with disabilities struggle to get the help and equipment they need. Public schools are under-resourced. We don’t have a magic uber-highway to zip us around the country at the speed of sound. And yet we’re spending taxpayer’s cash on IVF for women in their 50s. Riddle me that. The news that a 60-year-old gave birth is the sort of thing that sees some people shudder while others are all high-fives and ‘you go girlfriend’ excited. feedback@thepunch.com.au (The Punch Team) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/an-age-old-question-on-taxpayer-funding-for-ivf/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/an-age-old-question-on-taxpayer-funding-for-ivf/#item10219 Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:00:10 +0000 Hundreds of Australians die every year because of overcrowded hospitals. Children with disabilities struggle to get the help and equipment they need. Public schools are under-resourced. We don’t have a magic uber-highway to zip us around the country at the speed of sound. And yet we’re spending taxpayer’s cash on IVF for women in their 50s. Riddle me that. The news that a 60-year-old gave birth is the sort of thing that sees some people shudder while others are all high-fives and ‘you go girlfriend’ excited. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/cant-we-all-just-stop-thinking-about-the-children/ In these frazzled and time-poor times it is difficult to juggle the competing demands of feeding the children and getting them delivered punctually to school or childcare, while also meeting our own need for sustenance and employment. To this end it is worth thinking about whether schools and childcare centres could be co-located at McDonalds drive-throughs. The children could be removed from the car - if they’re small enough you could pass them straight through the window – and a helpful McDonalds employee could then hand you a coffee and a McMuffin and give the kiddies some nuggets (or whatever) before taking them to class. You wouldn’t even need to leave your vehicle, and everyone would start the day with a hearty meal. Clearly, this idea isn’t even remotely worth thinking about, but it is worth throwing it out there in a juvenile fashion to upset the nutrition freaks and child protection obsessives who want their cotton-wooled, risk-averse, no-fun agenda enshrined in the nation’s statutes. feedback@thepunch.com.au (The Punch Team) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/cant-we-all-just-stop-thinking-about-the-children/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/cant-we-all-just-stop-thinking-about-the-children/#item10179 Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:00:10 +0000 Hundreds of Australians die every year because of overcrowded hospitals. Children with disabilities struggle to get the help and equipment they need. Public schools are under-resourced. We don’t have a magic uber-highway to zip us around the country at the speed of sound. And yet we’re spending taxpayer’s cash on IVF for women in their 50s. Riddle me that. The news that a 60-year-old gave birth is the sort of thing that sees some people shudder while others are all high-fives and ‘you go girlfriend’ excited. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/homelessness-should-not-be-a-first-world-problem/ New figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show an 8 per cent increase in the homelessness rate on 2006 figures, a fact that should be a matter of concern for all Australians. The figures demonstrate that there is still a lot of work to be done to address homelessness and that far too many Australians are being pushed to the margins of society; struggling to find a way out and rebuild their lives. The figures show that 105,237 people in Australia are experiencing homelessness, with 60 per cent of those under the age of 35. In NSW, the results showed that there were 28,190 people experiencing homelessness up by 21 per cent on 2006 figures. Perhaps surprising to many people is that 41 per cent of these are women, 13 per cent are under the age of 12 and 56 per cent are under the age of 35. feedback@thepunch.com.au (The Punch Team) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/homelessness-should-not-be-a-first-world-problem/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/homelessness-should-not-be-a-first-world-problem/#item9972 Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:00:10 +0000 Hundreds of Australians die every year because of overcrowded hospitals. Children with disabilities struggle to get the help and equipment they need. Public schools are under-resourced. We don’t have a magic uber-highway to zip us around the country at the speed of sound. And yet we’re spending taxpayer’s cash on IVF for women in their 50s. Riddle me that. The news that a 60-year-old gave birth is the sort of thing that sees some people shudder while others are all high-fives and ‘you go girlfriend’ excited. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-man-who-might-sometimes-wish-he-was-faceless/ Like most of us who make fitful attempts at losing weight, I take note of the astonishing methods celebrities choose to keep themselves trim. Not for them the tried-and-tested methods of exercising more and eating less; when it comes to losing weight, the modern celebrity favours the exotic. This week came an unexpected addition to the ranks of celebrity dispensers of novel lifestyle tips. feedback@thepunch.com.au (The Punch Team) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-man-who-might-sometimes-wish-he-was-faceless/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-man-who-might-sometimes-wish-he-was-faceless/#item9956 Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:00:10 +0000 Hundreds of Australians die every year because of overcrowded hospitals. Children with disabilities struggle to get the help and equipment they need. Public schools are under-resourced. We don’t have a magic uber-highway to zip us around the country at the speed of sound. And yet we’re spending taxpayer’s cash on IVF for women in their 50s. Riddle me that. The news that a 60-year-old gave birth is the sort of thing that sees some people shudder while others are all high-fives and ‘you go girlfriend’ excited. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/1920s-australias-lesson-for-Gillard-in-the-asian-century/ On 28 October the Prime Minister Julia Gillard delivered a speech at the launch of the White paper on Australia in the Asian Century. “History” she said “asks great nations great questions”. As we look forward to the Asian Century we might also want to reflect on the way Australia sought to define its place in the world 100 years ago: a century marked by the global process of decolonization. In the 1920’s the sun never set upon the British Empire but it was a rapidly changing world.  feedback@thepunch.com.au (The Punch Team) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/1920s-australias-lesson-for-Gillard-in-the-asian-century/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/1920s-australias-lesson-for-Gillard-in-the-asian-century/#item9880 Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:00:10 +0000 Hundreds of Australians die every year because of overcrowded hospitals. Children with disabilities struggle to get the help and equipment they need. Public schools are under-resourced. We don’t have a magic uber-highway to zip us around the country at the speed of sound. And yet we’re spending taxpayer’s cash on IVF for women in their 50s. Riddle me that. The news that a 60-year-old gave birth is the sort of thing that sees some people shudder while others are all high-fives and ‘you go girlfriend’ excited. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/limit-baby-bribes-to-a-familys-first-two-kids/ At a time when annual births (around 300,000) are double deaths (around 150,000) in Australia, Labor’s reduction in the baby bonus from $5,000 to $3,000 for second and subsequent children is welcome news. This fiscally responsible measure alone will save the nation up to $500 million every three years. But the government should go further. We live in a finite world and can’t grow forever. The sooner we adjust to a stable population, the easier it will be to manage growing scarcity of finite, non-renewable resources. Quality of life and intergenerational equity through the sustainable use of energy, food and water resources is our priority. The Stable Population Party supports young families and freedom of choice on family size, but not governments providing financial incentives to have large families. We advocate a broader strategy to encourage ‘replacement-size’ families: Limit both the baby bonus and paid parental leave to each woman’s first two children. feedback@thepunch.com.au (The Punch Team) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/limit-baby-bribes-to-a-familys-first-two-kids/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/limit-baby-bribes-to-a-familys-first-two-kids/#item9852 Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:00:10 +0000 Hundreds of Australians die every year because of overcrowded hospitals. Children with disabilities struggle to get the help and equipment they need. Public schools are under-resourced. We don’t have a magic uber-highway to zip us around the country at the speed of sound. And yet we’re spending taxpayer’s cash on IVF for women in their 50s. Riddle me that. The news that a 60-year-old gave birth is the sort of thing that sees some people shudder while others are all high-fives and ‘you go girlfriend’ excited. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/our-second-and-third-cousins-are-not-what-they-used-to-be/ My name is Sarah, I am tall and I am a journalist. On the weekend, I went to New Zealand for a family reunion with almost a hundred relatives I have never met before. There I met my third-cousin Sarah, who is also really tall, and is also a journalist. Let’s put aside the fact that this person had basically stolen my personality, and had made my little introduction speech a whole lot less impressive: “Oh, you’re a journalist? Yeah whatever I just met the other Sarah”. feedback@thepunch.com.au (The Punch Team) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/our-second-and-third-cousins-are-not-what-they-used-to-be/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/our-second-and-third-cousins-are-not-what-they-used-to-be/#item9817 Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:00:10 +0000 Hundreds of Australians die every year because of overcrowded hospitals. Children with disabilities struggle to get the help and equipment they need. Public schools are under-resourced. We don’t have a magic uber-highway to zip us around the country at the speed of sound. And yet we’re spending taxpayer’s cash on IVF for women in their 50s. Riddle me that. The news that a 60-year-old gave birth is the sort of thing that sees some people shudder while others are all high-fives and ‘you go girlfriend’ excited. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/We-mustnt-be-too-quick-to-run-from-marriage/ There has been a significant retreat from marriage over the past few decades. Marriages rates are down, divorce rates are up, one-third of children are born out-of-wedlock, and a significant number of children lose all contact with one parent. These trends have had many negative consequences for children. Hundreds of social science studies report problematic outcomes for the health, education and well-being of the young people affected by the changes. Where children experience more than one family transition, the risks compound. This is not to say that all the effects apply to each child whose parents divorce, or who is raised by a single parent. There is no way to predict how any particular child will be affected, nor to what extent. But it is clear that there are widespread ramifications for this cohort of children as a whole. feedback@thepunch.com.au (The Punch Team) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/We-mustnt-be-too-quick-to-run-from-marriage/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/We-mustnt-be-too-quick-to-run-from-marriage/#item9714 Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:00:10 +0000 Hundreds of Australians die every year because of overcrowded hospitals. Children with disabilities struggle to get the help and equipment they need. Public schools are under-resourced. We don’t have a magic uber-highway to zip us around the country at the speed of sound. And yet we’re spending taxpayer’s cash on IVF for women in their 50s. Riddle me that. The news that a 60-year-old gave birth is the sort of thing that sees some people shudder while others are all high-fives and ‘you go girlfriend’ excited. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-tale-of-a-mother-a-father-and-four-young-girls/ This week the Family Court ordered four young girls back to their father in Italy after a series of battles, including to the High Court. Unlike most family disputes, this was played out before the world’s eyes through international media. The case reference for the Italian children court case is innocuously abbreviated to [2012] FamCA 839. It represents the best and worst of international and family law, where each case may have no real winners and if there were, the system would be broken. The Italian Children saga is about a mum who took four kids on a month’s holiday to Australia from Italy and never returned home. feedback@thepunch.com.au (The Punch Team) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-tale-of-a-mother-a-father-and-four-young-girls/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-tale-of-a-mother-a-father-and-four-young-girls/#item9643 Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:00:10 +0000 Hundreds of Australians die every year because of overcrowded hospitals. Children with disabilities struggle to get the help and equipment they need. Public schools are under-resourced. We don’t have a magic uber-highway to zip us around the country at the speed of sound. And yet we’re spending taxpayer’s cash on IVF for women in their 50s. Riddle me that. The news that a 60-year-old gave birth is the sort of thing that sees some people shudder while others are all high-fives and ‘you go girlfriend’ excited.