MEDIA RELEASE
29 November 2007
Daughter (16) Hidden from Parents Under Privacy Act
Family First is blasting the effects of the Privacy Act which has meant that a Manukau City family has been unable to
find out where their runaway daughter is.
“It is a disgrace that the role of parents and the right of parents to know where their children are, is being
undermined by privacy legislation and the so-called rights of children,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family
First NZ.
“This is not a dysfunctional home where the child is unsafe. This is not a family who don’t care – in fact they have
spent hours roaming the street since the November 6 disappearance of their 16 year old daughter. Yet despite all that,
the police are protecting the whereabouts of the daughter. The parents have been left in the dark. According to the
Manukau Courier the police are saying that a young person under 17 can dictate whether their parents are told where they
are.”
“Politicians, with the support of the UN, Children’s Commissioner and Youth Law Project to name a few, have sought to
increase children’s rights without considering the vital role of parents, and ways of strengthening families rather than
splitting them.”
“On one hand, a parent is responsible for the actions and costs of their child in the community and school, but at the
same time their role is being undermined by criminalising effective methods of parental correction, providing the
Independent Youth Benefit, provision of contraception and abortion without the consent or even knowledge of the parents,
and the recent example of a school dobbing in a parent to CYF for giving their child a light smack.”
“The Privacy Act and children’s rights are being used as a blunt instrument against parents,” says Mr McCoskrie.
“If the government wants parents to be responsible parents, the law must firstly respect their authority and role.”
ENDS