Stop Taxpayer Funding of Political Propaganda

Stephen Franks Thursday, 25 August 2005 Press Releases - Crime & Justice

Act Justice spokesman Stephen Franks today called on Attorney General Michael Cullen to ensure that Children's Commissioner Cindy Kiro is sacked for political bias.

"Her attack on the Christian college pamphlet advocating smacking is a direct intervention in a party political issue. This fits the pattern of the Labour Government, corrupting our constitutional convention that public servants must be politically neutral.

"The college is sincerely advocating perfectly lawful conduct. Until the elected representatives of the people in Parliament decide to change the law, tax paid public servants must stay out of the debate.

"The Attorney General is supposed to be the guardian of constitutional propriety by ministers. If he fails to act in this case it will confirm the unsuitability for the post of a Minister who will support any zealotry of Helen Clark to stay in favour," Mr Franks said.

"There is no excuse for tax paid intervention in this debate. It is a party political matter, just like the nuclear propulsion ban, the NCEA and the Kyoto obligations, where ACT and the Greens have clear party positions. In various ways they embarrass Labour and National so they want to avoid being seen to have positions in the debate.

"Ministers may covertly want to have their anti-smacking agenda pushed by a State funded third-party, but if that is now acceptable New Zealanders have no protection against a naked grab for the levers of power to get access to voters' money for blatant political propaganda.

"This serious constitutional breach is another reason why propaganda bodies like the Children's Commission must go. I have no doubt that United Future's useless Families Commission will be stacked with the same kind of people willing to abuse their power for the same politically correct purposes," Mr Franks said.

ENDS

© Scoop Media