Party leader outlines first five pledges.

The Kiwi Party
Press Release
Aug 9, 2008
Embargoed till 11AM August 9th.

Addressing his party’s annual conference today, party leader Larry Baldock announced their first five priorities for action they would be working on after the election.

"Our number one priority is of course to stop the criminalisation of good parents by repealing the anti-smacking law. This has to be the most anti-family socially destructive legislation parliament has passed in a long while. Completing the petition to force a referendum was always only going to be the first stage of the battle," said Mr Baldock

"It is simply not good enough for John Key to say he supports the peoples’ right to have their voice heard in a referendum without committing his Government to abide by the result.

"In fact when National’s leader John Key announced their pledge of 10 policy items at their conference last weekend not a single one of them addresses any of the social engineering Labour has forced upon the nation in the past 6 -9 years.
National surely is the party to maintain the status quo, easy she goes, don’t rock the boat.
It is essential therefore that the Kiwi party is able to exercise influence over National after this years election if voters want to see the social engineering of Labour repealed.

"Our message to the voters in this election is this, give the Kiwi party your support on Election Day and the Bradford anti-smacking law will be gone by lunchtime. Once the law has been repealed we must then get serious about the nations child abuse by appointing a Royal Commission  to understand and address the wider causes of family breakdown, family violence and child abuse in response to the more than 300, 000 kiwis that signed our petition on this matter.

"Then we must restore our democracy by ensuring that we can have binding referenda on controversial issues. It must never happen again that more than 90% of our elected representatives could ignore 80% of the population ever again.

"We must raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour with an offsetting tax credit to employers to give our low paid workers dignity and a decent wage to out food on their tables.
 
"We will raise the drinking age and clamp down on anyone supplying alcohol illegally to those underage and move quickly to establish faith based detox and rehab centres to provide assistance to families dealing with drug and alcohol addictions in their youth. 

"Then we will invest in marriage preparation, marriage and relationship enrichment course through faith based charities, iwi based and other third sector organisations.

Ends

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