Tough Love A La Belgium
Newcastle Herald
Friday April 4, 2008
I'VE just worked out where Morris Iemma got his fabulous plan to solve school truancy, and hence orphan children, by jailing their parents.
Belgium.Yes, I'm pretty sure the country that gave the world Charlemagne, Audrey Hepburn, Hercule Poirot, Guylian chocolates, the Smurfs and, in 1996, Tom Nuyens, the first Mister World, has inspired our Premier to lift the state's educational standards by reducing the gene pool of lousy parents with time in the slammer.I would bet a set of handcuffs that Mr Iemma came up with his proposal after reading about how Belgian authorities plan to jail two sets of parents for five months for not vaccinating their children against polio.There was no mention of what the children would be doing in that time.Quite possibly, as journalists found fairly quickly while questioning the Premier this week about the finer points of the Iemma Truancy Action Plan, the impact on kiddies comes under the heading of "Unintended Consequences". Details later. Maybe.France is the only other country in the world apart from Belgium that makes polio vaccinations mandatory by law.But while the French penalise bad parents by depriving them of wine and truffles for a month, the Belgians true to form as the country sometimes called the "cockpit of Europe" for its habit of getting caught up in other people's wars decided more of a tough love approach was needed.Hence a chunk of jail time.And while the Premier's plan fine-tuned on the back of an envelope, in pencil, and written in a speeding car on the way to a press conference has been clobbered since the minute he earnestly unveiled his new inner toughness, jailing parents has its supporters.A University of Manchester professor of bioethics called John Harris had no problem with the Belgians jailing non-vaccinating parents for months, despite that niggling issue about who's going to look after the kids."The parents in this case do not have any rights they can appeal to," said Professor Harris, who must have done a stint as a law and order adviser to either the NSW Labor or Liberal parties in the recent past."They have obligations they are not fulfilling."And over in the good old US of A, where it probably wouldn't surprise to hear the death penalty has been floated as an appropriate method for dealing with truant or non-vaccinating parents, the state of Maryland jails parents for failing on both scores, unless they object for religious reasons.So clearly there's some form on the board on this jailing parents thing.Which got me thinking.Maybe we're taking too much of a glass-half-empty approach to this.Maybe we should get behind the Premier and come up with a whole new range of penalties for parents, to make our community great and, if there are fines involved, it might end up a nice little earner.It's all for the kids, of course.What about floggings for parents who let their young 'uns wander the streets after 10pm?It worked 200 years ago, and a public flogging would end all that angst about soft judges and light sentences. With the first sight of blood the community lust for justice would be appeased.How about transportation for parents whose P-plater kids tailgate you when you're looking for a parking spot in Newcastle? A week of hard labour in Tassie, clearing lantana from national parks sounds about right.Parents who don't make kids brush their teeth at night, hence increasing demand for public dental services in the future? A $200 fine and 100 hours community service at the local public school canteen.Parents who send their kids to school with nits? Has to be weekend detention at Tomago.Teenagers skateboarding in shopping centre car parks? Grab the keys to the parental Pajero.Giving your kiddies red cordial? We'll make your home an alcohol-free zone for a week.You've got the idea, so let's embrace the new era of personal responsibility ushered in by the Premier this week, and the state's new slogan:NSW when things are a mess, create a diversion.
© 2008 Newcastle Herald
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