City Voice: Treaty "not our foundation"

By Fraser Rolfe

NEW ZEALANDERS must not "pretend that the Treaty [of Waitangi] is the foundation of NZ", says Act's Rongotai candidate, Stephen Franks.

He told a small election meeting at Kilbirnie School on 15 Oct that NZ could not continue to be based on racial difference.

The "Unemployment Court" came in for special criticism. Franks said "bogus claims" from employees were putting severe pressure on small businesses.

National's Stuart Boag, who organised the meeting, said the party vote was the critical vote under MMP, because it determined the number of MPs each party got in Parliament.

Green candidate Rich Wernham became involved in politics in order to take a strong stand against genetic engineering. He said companies are "messing around with the basis of existence itself".

Linda Dring, a new candidate for the former Christian Democrats, now Future NZ, said her party was "born out of desire by people in community to get involved". It stood for "commonsense politics, innovative leadership and policies".

She advocated "restorative justice". As insurance companies often paid out after a crime, Dring said offenders "would pay back the insurance companies".

"They have to go back out into the community and pay back their debt to society.

"Victims have equal rights to offenders" and offenders would not get off on "technicalities", Dring said.

Future NZ would supply more funding for parents as first educators of children. They would try to keep families together by creating a network dedicated to "advice and emotional support". Future NZ advocates adoption as a preferable option to abortion.

They would "bring in overseas dollars by way of tourism" to pay for these policies.

ENDS

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