Marc My Words…
From Marc Alexander MP. 10 October 2003
United Future NZ-Christchurch Supplement
Families are being spanked by political correctness
The family as an institution has never been under siege, as it is today. Accompanying a downward trend in the number and
viability of marriages over the last thirty years, we have witnessed a rapid decline in respect for the family and the
role it has played in society.
It wasn’t long ago that the family performed the key function of providing a safe and nurturing environment for children
to grow up. The family was the fundamental social unit that provided the heart and backbone of community. But as
alternatives to marriage and family have taken on equivalent legal standing, it requires no genius to recognise that the
status of the family has been eroded.
How, in the face of this escalating trend, can the family withstand the onslaught? It is beyond belief that while we
decry our increasing murder rates, crimes of violence, truancy and lack of ethical behaviours, we diminish the one
institution capable of doing much about it!
Look at recent events; the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 has not only made prostitution acceptable by normalising it, but
actively promotes pimping as a legalised profession! We have a bunch of ideologues who are hell-bent on removing choice
as quickly as they are trying to remove the right to smoke in the privacy of your own hospitality investment; all the
while being in cahoots with those who propose to decriminalise marijuana.
We have made the relationship between parent and teacher adversarial rather than complementary, with so-called privacy
rights issues. (Parents will not be informed, for example, if their child demands an abortion with a teacher’s help).
Now the proponents want to clip the parental right to ‘use reasonable force’ in the discipline of their children with
the misguided belief that will miraculously banish all child abuse. Just who do these self appointed ‘intellectual’
social engineers think they are?
Now we see that raising children at home is becoming a luxury as more mothers of young children are forced to return to
work. The result has been the abdication of parenting due in part because of financial constraints…and no wonder! If you
take Income Tax + GST + excise + duties, most New Zealanders are paying a whopping 40% of their incomes into Government
coffers. At that rate how could we not expect mothers to be forced back into the workplace…and with dire consequences
for the family!
International research has shown that children who spend long periods in childcare at an early age risk developing
aggression and behaviour problems (“Press” October 4). Taken cumulatively, the family which has been the very
cornerstone of our successful nation has now been undermined, politically corrected and spanked to a point where it
enfeebles rather than enriches society.
The family is no longer a source of rejuvenation but of dependence.
ENDS