One Law to Rule us All

The Conservative Party is continuing it's intensive newspaper campaign with full page advertisments today and tomorrow advocating that the best way forward for New Zealand is as one united people who are treated equally under the law, and by the electoral system.

"It's time that race based policy in New Zealand came to an end," says Conservative Party Leader Colin Craig.

"The Treaty of Waitangi expressly provides for equal rights and privileges for all New Zealanders. That concept is a solid foundation on which to build a great Nation," he says.

This is not new thinking for Mr Craig who has been a Lecturer in the Maori Studies Department at Auckland University of Technology.

The Conservative Party is consistent in its view that the laws of New Zealand should not divide people on the basis of race,” Mr Craig says.

"The National Party have promoted division, not unity. The Conservative Party is committed to changing that."

"National were wrong on the Foreshore and Seabed. They've allowed special rights to some New Zealanders and not to others, and have funded claimants with taxpayer money. The National Party have undermined public ownership of coastal resources, and blatantly disregarded the overwhelming number of public submissions against their proposal."

“The Conservative Party objected to the Government’s scope of the MMP review, which specifically excluded submissions on the Maori seats. We have always supported the Royal Commission's finding that there should not be Maori seats under MMP,” says Mr Craig.

“The Conservative Party has also objected to the current Constitutional Review on the grounds that there is no mandate from New Zealanders to amend our constitutional arrangements. No special interest group (race based or otherwise) should have more power than a vote of New Zealand citizens in a referendum.”

“Finally, the Conservative Party is the only Party to have submitted an objection to the special significance given to Maori spirituality in the Auckland Unitary Plan. We object to this, and to any other laws that promote one religious view over another,” he says.

"It's not the governments job to legislate one religious belief over another, and I'm convinced the people of New Zealand think the same," says Mr Craig.

"We need to start thinking of ourselves as one family in this country. We need to be breaking down racial division, not building new edifices of discrimination," he says.

ENDS

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