Turner gives spurned submitters a voice

United Future family affairs spokeswoman Judy Turner today saluted the 58 Families Commission Bill submitters spurned by the Opposition parties in the select committee process.

"United Future will give them their day in Parliament; we will respect their role in the legislative process and take on board the views that they have submitted," Mrs Turner said

Later, speaking at the bill's second reading, Mrs Turner said the submitters were "generally very positive" and had been "short-changed" by an Opposition stunt that meant public submissions were completely ignored and no report was delivered back to Parliament.

The Families Commission would have a strong emphasis on identifying family strengths and how to replicate them in other families, she said.

"The opportunity to establish a solutions-focused Families Commission is an exciting one," Mrs Turner said.

"The fact is that a clear focus on the family has been a poorly covered base in central government thinking for a long time now, and the Families Commission will right that wrong, at the crucial level of policy creation, and at other levels.

"As I've said before, it will be a great day for New Zealand families when the impact on families of a piece of legislation is place before a government in the same way that Treasury today outlines the economic impact of legislation," she said later.

"That is what the Families Commission will deliver," she said.

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