Press Release For Immediate Release

Human Wrongs Commissioner Named

Ella Henry's appointment to the position of Human Rights Commissioner leaves Libertarianz spokesman Andrew Bates bemused. "How can the government expect anyone to take them and their Commissariat seriously when they appoint an opponent of rights to be their guardian?" he wonders.

Bates opposed Ella Henry in her 1999 campaign at Auckland University in which she argued in favour students being forced to join students' associations; Bates' Voluntary Student Membership won that battle, and now he says he is "flabbergasted that someone like Henry who wished to violate the rights to free association of 26,000 students at Auckland University could be appointed to a position to uphold rights."

Earlier this year, the Labour Caucus mooted that the Human Rights Commission be incorporated into a wider body after the Human Rights Commission found elements of the Government's "Closing the Gaps" policy to be discriminating on the basis of race. It has now placed two Labour candidates and an Alliance candidate on the Commission. "It appears that they weren't satisfied with their earlier attempts do away with dissenting voices," exclaims a somewhat dismayed Mr Bates. "Instead the government thinks it can suppress such views by replacing the Commissars with its flunkies!"

Bates warns that "political rights are not just feel-good themes - they are the foundations of a free society. That the state could appoint such a person to what is effectively a highly politicised part of the judiciary is an abhorrent signal of this government's disdain for individual rights, and an indication of the corruption of the Commission!"

"Libertarianz." he confirms, "would abolish the Human Wrongs Commmissariat at the first opportunity."

ENDS

For more information, please contact: Andrew N Bates President, Student Choice Auckland Libertarianz Spokesman on Tertiary Education Deregulation 021 346 478 bates@orcon.net.nz

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