29 November 2005
Airlines should be more down to earth
Air New Zealand and Qantas are wrong to ban men from sitting alongside unaccompanied children on their planes, Green
Party Human Rights Spokesperson Keith Locke says.
"The airlines should be more down to earth and recognise that men are people too.
"This is clearly a breach of the Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex.
"I will be writing to the Human Rights Commission asking them to intervene to bring the two airlines to their senses.
"The moral panic about men being a potential threat to children has already had negative effects, particularly in
childcare and in pre-school education, where men are now grossly under-represented in the workforce. It is prejudicial
to presume that men can't be trusted to have contact with children unless there are related to them or are specially
trained.
"The ban runs against some of the progress we have made, with men now playing a greater role in rearing their children
and engaging in play-centre and school activities. Househusbands are much more common now than they were.
"I'm glad National's 'PC Eradicator' Wayne Mapp has also opposed this ban, but he is wrong to call it 'political
correctness'. The anti-PC brigade usually criticise what they see as an overemphasis on equal rights, including between
the genders. The Greens are sometimes the target of their attacks, so I'm glad to see them supporting equal rights in
this case," Mr Locke says.
ENDS