Wednesday 16th Aug 2000 Dr Muriel Newman Media Release -- Economy

“A snow job to undermine shared parenting” is how ACT Social Welfare Spokesman, Dr Muriel Newman describes the discussion paper on the review of the guardianship laws, released today by the Government.

“The Government voted against my Shared Parenting Bill going to a select committee, even though they knew it had widespread support,” Dr Newman said.

“To avoid being called anti-family, they came up with a smokescreen idea of a guardianship act review. It is a thinly veiled guise to preserve the current preference for sole custody.

“The review purports to look at the rights of children. I would have thought that the rights of children to have two parents to support them,was one of the prime prerequisite of shared parenting arrangements. Instead in his launch speech, the Minister of Social Services makes it clear that shared parenting will not be a consideration.

“The launch of this review, clearly shows that the Government intends to ignore the massive numbers of New Zealanders who believe that shared parenting will provide better outcomes for children who are the victims of family breakdown.

“It paves the way for a Citizens’ Initiated Referendum on shared parenting, due to be launched this week. The CIR will give a quarter of a million people a chance to show their support for shared parenting and their opposition towards a government that is too arrogant to listen”, Dr Newman said.

ENDS

For more information visit ACT online at http://www.act.org.nz or contact the ACT Parliamentary Office at act@parliament.govt.nz.

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