Am I the only one who is
deeply offended by the idea of “family impact statements” for proposed
legislation? Family First Senator Steve “Plan B” Fielding (as The Australian’s Matt Price calls him) was at it again yesterday, demanding a “detailed statement on the impact of the Telstra sale on families.”

I
am single and I live in a one-person household. “Family impact
statements” tell me that I’m a second-class citizen and that the
interests of people with different living arrangements are worthy of
consideration in a way that mine are not. Surely we should be alert to
the impact policies will have on everyone, not just those with a spouse
or children (perhaps that “or” should be “and” – it’s not clear how
restrictive Fielding’s definition is).

To avoid that
implication, people occasionally adopt the ruse of describing every
living arrangement as a “family” – but in that case the word isn’t
doing any useful work. They would be better called “human impact
statements.”