Many thanks to our good friend Ruby Harrold-Claesson for the encouraging words and delightful photos below. Ruby, a lawyer from Sweden, came out to NZ in 2006 to help us fight this Section 59 battle. If you have not visited her organisation’s website, please set aside some time soon to check it out. It has several language options, so make sure you click on the British Union Jack to get the English version! http://www.nkmr.orgRegards,Craig SmithFamily IntegrityFrom: Ruby Harrold-Claesson [mailto:rubyhc@nkmr.org]
Sent: Tuesday, 17 June 2008 5:36 p.m.
Subject: Words to Live By – and beautiful picturesDear Friends,
With these words and pictures, I would like to like to extend my sincere congratulations for your selfless efforts and the work that you are doing to protect your country and your countrymen.
Your stance against your PM’s and her pal Sue Bradford’s anti-smacking law, forced through Parliament claiming that it will reduce child abuse, is plain common sense. Rather than protecting children it seems that their determination is to destroy New Zealand society by the removal of parental authority thus undermining families by making parents afraid of their children. Your opposition to the insane law is unique. No other country has shown the resistance that has been shown in New Zealand. And, you can lean back against the decision not to ban smacking that was taken in the British Parliament in October 2007.
I quote from the Daily Mail article “Government u-turn as ministers tell parents they CAN smack their children“, published on October 26, 2007: “Shadow children’s minister Tim Loughton said: “This is a clear victory for common-sense.
“Clearly, if any adult is responsible for abuse and violence towards a child they need to face the full rigour of the law.
“But there is a world of difference between that and criminalising loving parents that use chastisement as they see fit in the interest of their child.
“There was never any public appetite for reopening this can of worms just three years after the issue was debated in Parliament.” Click here for link .
It is great to see that the signatures for a referendum on the anti-smacking law is fast approaching 370 000.
Keep up the good word and enjoy the pics.
Kind regards
RubySorry could’t put pics. up.
Author: HEF Admin
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Latest NZ abortion statistics are a grave tragedy for NZ women and their unborn babies
A press release from Family Life International, New Zealand
Contact: Brendan Malone: (03) 351 3225 – Mobile: 021 054 0762
The latest New Zealand abortion statistics issued today by Statistics New Zealand show that in 2007 there were 450 more induced abortions than in 2006. This represents 450 more legally sanction acts which exposed NZ women to serious physical and psychological harm, and 450 more innocent Kiwi babies who lost their lives to abortion.
The latest figures show that the abortion rate increased from 17,930 abortions in 2006 to 18,380 abortions last year, an increase of 2.5 percent in a one year period.
If this current trend continues as it has for the last two years, then next year the number of induced abortions in New Zealand will be higher than it has ever been before in our history.
The public debate that has occurred during the last week regarding Justice Millar’s High Court ruling about NZ abortions has simply exposed how very little most New Zealanders know about the true harmful effects of abortion, or about how seriously unsound much of the arguments used to support it actually are.
It has also exposed that many of the pro-abortion supporters in this country are intolerant and hateful of individuals and opinions which dissent from their own. One pro-abortion editorial in the Dominion Post last week called pro-lifers the Teleban, and last week a hateful and obscene pro-abortion video posted on YouTube targeted a prominent NZ pro-life advocate with imagery which features a gun pointed at his head.
While New Zealand women and their unborn babies continue to pay an unnecessary and horrific price, those who endorse and carry out abortions continue to ignore the harm that their ideology is doing to Kiwi women and their unborn babies, and those who support abortion continue to do so blindly, without properly considering the philosophical and moral validity of their pro-abortion position.
ENDS
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Abortions Increase – Tragedy for Teens and Families
MEDIA RELEASE
17 JUNE 2008
The abortion figures for 2007 released by Statistics NZ today continue to paint a terrible picture for teenagers and families, and confirm the continued failure of the Abortion Supervisory Committee, as highlighted by the High Court case last week.
Almost 4,300 teenagers had an abortion in 2007. Each week, over 80 teenagers have an abortion, and represent almost a quarter of all abortions performed in NZ.
Since 1991, the number of 11-14 year olds having an abortion has increased by 141%. The number of abortions for 15-19 year olds has increased by 82%.
“This is a tragedy for the girls involved, some as young as 11,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director. “It is also devastating for the extended family, especially if the young girl has been sneaked off for the abortion by Family Planning or a School Counselor without the parents’ knowledge or consent.”
“It provides evidence that the myth of safe sex pushed by Family Planning, the AIDS Foundation and similar groups is miserably failing our vulnerable young people, who are being made even more vulnerable by then being encouraged to have an abortion,” says Bob McCoskrie. “This is why 83% of parents in a recent US Zogby poll believe that programs should reinforce the abstinence and ‘wait’ message.”
The overall abortion rate is at its highest ever, except for 2003. More than 350 abortions happen every week.
At the same time as over 18,000 abortions were being performed in NZ last year, adoptions totalled less than 90, according to the Adoption Option Trust.
“Of huge concern is the fact that 22% of abortions are being performed at 12 weeks or greater despite all the pictures, scans and scientific understanding of the fetal development of the unborn child,” says Mr McCoskrie. “These images are obviously being kept hidden from some of the women seeking an abortion.”
Family First NZ is calling for a law which requires informed consent (including ultrasound) for all potential abortions, and counselling to be provided only by non-providers of abortion services. Parental notification of teenage pregnancy and abortion should happen automatically except in exceptional circumstances approved by the court.
ENDS
For More Information and Media Interviews, contact Family First:
Bob McCoskrie JP – National Director
Tel. 09 261 2426 | Mob. 027 55 555 42
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Sports & Fielddays Crowds Give CIR Petition Huge Boost
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0806/S00175.htm
Sports and Fielddays Crowds Give
Anti-Smacking Petition Huge Boost
Family First Media Release 15 June 2008
Family First NZ says that the numbers of signatures on the petition against the anti-smacking law and demanding a Referendum at the upcoming Election has been hugely boosted by a number of large events over the past 2 weekends.“ Over 12,000 signatures have been collected at the two recent All Blacks tests, a Warriors game, the Waikato Fielddays, and other sporting and community events ,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.
“ The signature count from the Fielddays alone was a whopping 8,700. It has certainly reinforced to us the strong feeling against this unpopular and ineffective law by typical NZ’ers who are attending these events. There is no shortage of people wanting to sign the petition.”
The organisers originally had a shortfall of 18,027 signatures after the audit of the original 324,216 signatures submitted in April. However, since then, more than 50,000 signatures have been collected. These will be submitted before the deadline of the end of the month.
“This confirms that a Referendum will be held on the anti-smacking law at the same time as the Election, it confirms that a huge proportion of NZ’ers want the law changed to protect good parents, and it sends a very clear and loud message to the politicians that they should listen to the views of the voters who will be making a choice at the upcoming Election.”
“It’s time to tackle the real causes of child abuse, violence and crime without criminalising the efforts of good parents raising productive and law-abiding citizens of the future,” says Mr McCoskrie.
“There is good reason that only 23 of the almost 200 countries have adopted this law. NZ can lead the world by being the first country to reverse this flawed law before its effects are fully felt by families and the community.”
ENDS
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HELEN CLARK IN 1998
13 Jun 2008Hi Barbara,
Who said it????
“She wants to busy herself with what goes on in the homes of the nation in areas which families regard as their own responsibility, and I think she’s going over a very dangerous line.”
Who said this? HELEN CLARK IN 1998
Who was she referring to? JENNY SHIPLEY – THE PRIME MINISTER AT THE TIME
Source – Dominion Post 30 March 1998 (referring to Shipley’s proposed code of social and family responsibility, and her suggestion of values and religious teaching in schools – SHOCK HORROR!!!) -
FI399-Anti-smackers lose their cool
13 June 2008 – Family Integrity #399 — Anti-smackers lose their cool
ANTI-SMACKING: The destroyed petition.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/northland/4581394a23016.html
Anti-smackers lose their cool
By GEMMA REDDELL – Rodney Times | Thursday, 12 June 2008
Anti-smacking supporters got violent at a gathering of signatures for the Citizens Initiated Referendum campaign last Saturday.
Whangaparaoa resident Arna Mountain was gathering signatures for the petition when two women, on separate occasions, started abusing her.
She says many people were eager to sign the two petitions, which ask ‘should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?’ and ‘should the government give urgent priority to understanding and addressing the wider causes of family breakdown, family violence and child abuse?’
She says she was shocked by what she sees as violent, anti-democratic behaviour.
“These petitions are asking for the democratic right to vote on what has been a contentious issue, but these two women seemed determined to intimidate the public and those collecting the signatures.”
She says the first woman took offence to the gathering of the signatures and started yelling.
How dare we smack our children, she shouted. Mrs Mountain says she then started telling bystanders to “roll up and sign the petition that allows you to abuse your children and then kill them, yes murder them, come on sign up.”
Later she was approached by another woman who asked if this was the petition to sign, then grabbed it, tore off the signed part and ripped it into pieces.
“The woman then took the clipboard which had other completed forms underneath and took off.
I called her to give back the clipboard and the legal document she had torn. She threw it across the entrance-way and yelled about how smacking children was wrong,” she says.
Mrs Mountain says that while she is shocked at the intensity of the behaviour, there are obviously a few people who are mistaken about what the petition is about.
“There are a few people who are completely unaware of the statistics that show that abuse and parental correction are completely different issues. No one in their right mind wants to abuse children. She says the vast majority of people are still against this law.”
They received 144 signatures in a two-and-a-half hour period in Whangaparaoa.
Petition forms can be downloaded from thekiwiparty.org.nz under ‘referendum’ or from Orewa and Whangaparaoa libraries. The last date for signing is June 15.