The marriage movement is making itself felt in Australia and New Zealand with the publication of a report, 21 Reasons Why Marriage Matters, this week. A coalition of marriage and family advocacy groups is backing the report, which is based on local and international research showing the benefits of marriage over alternative arrangements for family life.

“This edition has 146 researched footnotes including NZ-based research and presents strong evidence that marriage is more than a private emotional relationship. It is a social good and we should develop policies, laws, and family and community interventions to help strengthen marriages. The weakening of marriage is one of the most important social issues we are facing in NZ,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.

Mr McCoskrie points out that government commissions as well as community agencies dealing with children’s welfare are ignoring the significance of marriage in their statements and policies:

“Family breakdown and decreasing marriage rates are seldom considered in debate on social policy issues, such as poverty among families with children. A recent 70-page report [Child Poverty: A Fair Go For All Children...] issued by the Children’s Commissioner and Barnardos contained no reference to marriage or divorce, despite the rate of poverty being five times higher for sole parent families .”

And:

“The Statement of Intent just published by the Families Commission fails to mention marriage even once. Yet domestic violence and child abuse – two pet topics of the Commission - is far more prevalent [See: Family Violence Statistics Report] in families where the biological parents are not both present and married.”

The new report follows one last year, commissioned by Family First, which highlighted the fiscal benefits of marriage for New Zealand, the tax penalty incurred by married couples, and calculated the cost of family breakdown at $1 billion a year.

The problem in this part of the world, as elsewhere, is that politicians and bureaucrats are scared of being seen as attacking single or divorced or cohabiting parents if they acknowledge the proven benefits of marriage. No doubt their own marital status is a factor in some cases.

This is a good initiative. I’m not keen on the glitzy, commercial-style photographs illustrating the report, but the text, drawing on luminaries of marriage research such as Norval Glenn, William Galston, Steven Nock and Linda Waite, is very solid.