Family Integrity’s repugnant views exposed

“Family Integrity’s views are extreme and repugnant to all reasonable New Zealanders,” said Murray Edridge, Chief Executive of Barnardos NZ. “And if Ruby Harrold-Claesson, whose visit to New Zealand is paid for by them, shares their views, then we don’t need her here.”

“The media reports of today have exposed Family Integrity’s views on hitting children and now is the time for us to give a strong message that those practices are unacceptable,” he continued. “An organisation which bases parenting views on the premise that children are ‘little bundles of depravity’ has no place in reasoned discussion of child management.”

“Earlier this week Child Youth and Family released statistics of the spiralling child abuse notifications in this country, yet here is an organisation which attempts to enter the national discussion by publishing instruction on how to beat a child with a rod in ten to fifteen minute sessions.”

“But it is worse than simply the physical abuse which is inherent in such instruction. Family Integrity insist that the child is not to struggle and to accept the thrashing as having been deserved and good for them. That is not physical abuse alone, that is brainwashing and emotional abuse.”

And who is Ruby Harrold-Claesson? Why should we listen to her when she comes under the sponsorship of such an extreme organisation? We understand that she is now distancing herself from Family Integrity, yet she herself is quoted in Sweden as saying “Children are emotional creatures who listen well through their skin.”

From Internet interviews she is reported as acknowledging that she is not a member of the Swedish Law Society and that she is banned from practising in courts in Western Sweden.

“I do not know what credence should be put on these reports,” continued Murray Edridge. “Perhaps she can throw some light on her own personal views and her authority to speak with credibility about Sweden. So far as I am concerned she has come to New Zealand now under very dubious circumstances.”

The media can learn more about Family Integrity from their website: www.familyintegrity.org.nz

An important interview with Ruby Harrold-Claesson can be read at: http://www.sfm.no/Arkiv-2005/Art-Jan-05/14.01.2005-RHClaesson.htm

ENDS

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