Civic groups, including childcare advocates, and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators yesterday held a news conference at the legislature, condemning the opposition parties for stalling on the passage of next year’s budget, which they said resulted in withholding of funds, halting of subsidies to families and the suspension of public childcare centers.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) legislators have blocked the deliberation process of the fiscal budget, so the central government cannot fully distribute funds to local governments, and childcare and other welfare programs might be put off next year, Childcare Policy Alliance spokesman Wang Chao-ching (王兆慶) said.
DPP legislators, including Lin Yue-chin (林月琴), Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Chen Pei-yu (陳培瑜), and representatives from the Peng Wan-ru Foundation and the Taiwan Public Childcare Association also participated at the news conference.
Photo downloaded from Lin Yueh-chin’s Facebook page
“We are working to safeguard social benefits and subsidies for mothers, families and children, and the new year starts next week, but the central government’s budget is still obstructed by opposition parties,” Lin said.
“KMT and TPP legislators telling people that they ‘prioritize bills related to social welfare programs’ is just a lie,” she said.
Lin said the blocking of the budget would have massive consequences on the welfare policies she has been advocating for, including a subsidy of NT$100,000 for new mothers, adding that if the budget fails to go through, parents of an estimated 120,000 babies would not receive it.
The stalling of the budget would also negatively affect the application of a policy change on maternal leaves and working from home aimed at giving parents more flexibility in work life, she said.
“Third, the public healthcare program would also be affected. It is aimed at upgrading public childcare facilities and would rely on steady financial support from the central government,” she said.
All the materials, from teaching tools to safety equipment, floor mats, fire prevention and video surveillance systems, rely on funding from the central government, she added.
Lin criticized KMT and TPP legislators for prioritizing amending the Nationality (國籍法) and Constitutional Court Procedure (憲法訴訟法) acts, instead of dealing with the fiscal budget, saying that the budget is crucial in realizing welfare programs.
“The opposition parties are blaming young people for not getting married and not having children,” she said, adding that they have no right to do that.
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