Judith Collins MP
National Party Families Spokeswoman

29 June 2004

Care of Children Bill - anything but

National Party Families spokeswoman Judith Collins says, "the Care of Children Bill is just another example of some positive initiatives coupled with and obscured by a social engineering agenda".

"Although the Bill proposes some positive reforms around opening the Family Court to limited scrutiny, it still will allow poor parenting and incompetence of professionals to escape scrutiny.

"Under the guise of children's rights, the Bill uses politically correct concepts that have little connection to the experience of parenting.

"The proposed changes to the guardianship laws would allow a parent to appoint as a guardian a short-term partner (1 year) by simply completing a form and registering it with the Family Court registrar. It makes a mockery of guardianship and the care of children.

"Replacing the universally understood concept of 'custody' with 'day-to-day care' reduces parents to 'care givers'.

"There is also a debate to be had about whether under-age girls should be able to consent to abortions without their parents' knowledge. Under the current law, reconfirmed in the Bill, girls as young as 10 can undergo a life-threatening operation without their parents being aware of the event.

"That leaves mum and dad to pick up the pieces without knowing the facts involved," says Ms Collins.

Ends

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>