Turner: Dig a little deeper, Ms Rich

Hell's Angels could not be mistaken for families by anyone other than increasingly irrelevant National MPs, United Future family affairs spokeswoman Judy Turner said today.

"Everyone, it would appear, but Katherine Rich, can tell the difference between a family, in whatever form it may take, and the local chapter of the Hell's Angels," Mrs Turner said in responding to a National attack on the Families Commission Bill.

"And I would like to reassure her that the Families Commission will approach matters with a little more intellectual rigour than your average National caucus.

"In making this quite silly claim, Ms Rich has again done what National has turned into an art form in recent years - she's missed the point entirely.

"Indeed if she must link the two, then perhaps a more intelligent approach - and certainly a more constructive one - would to be to query the connection between the strength of gangs today and the perilous and troubled position that many families are in.

"The two are clearly linked. When people have a strong sense of identity and belonging in a healthy family, they don't fall into gangs.

"Unfortunately, this sort of deeper analysis that the Families Commission will provide, takes a step well beyond the empty sloganeering that has become National's stock-in-trade.

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