Wednesday, 1st October 2008

Labour Government fails NZ families

Kiwi Party co-founder Gordon Copeland MP today published his report card on New Zealand's social statistics under Labour and marked it FAILED!

1999 2007 % Increase (Decrease) Violent crime offences 39,688 56,983 43.6 Violent crime rate (per 10,000 people) 103.5 134.8 30.2 Domestic violence offences 11,045 24,258 119.6 Child abuse offences 2,499 3,005 20.2 Fatherless Families* 107,394 120,996 12.7 Single Parent Families * 126,585 145,032 14.6 Teenage Pregnancies 3,926 5,102 30.0 Abortions 15,501 18,382 18.6 Truancy Rate **(%) - Primary - Intermediate - Composite

* - Secondary 1.4 1.4 2.5 5.6 1.9 2.2 3.5 8.3 35.7 57.1 40.0 48.2 Home ownership *** (% of all homes) 67.9 62.7 (7.7)

* figures from the 1996 and 2006 census ** 1998 and 2006 *** 1996 and 2006

* Year 1-15 schools

"This table represents just some of the negative social statistics," said Mr Copeland.

"For example, if you look at sexually transmitted infections (STIs), you will find that between 2003 and 2007, the number of chlamydia and gonorrhoea cases diagnosed by sexual health clinics increased by a massive 19.4% and 55.5% respectively. Or I could have included the 2007 Durex Global Sex Survey, which claimed that New Zealand women are the most promiscuous in the world and that NZ teenagers are amongst the youngest in the world when they lose their virginity? Or how about the rise and rise of binge drinking amongst young people and that, although the numbers were in Parliament last year to raise the drinking age back to 20, the Government torpedoed the Bill!"

"This 'report card' is completely unacceptable. Great Labour Party leaders of the past such as Michael Joseph Savage, Peter Fraser, and Norman Kirk would turn over in their graves."

"It exposes as myth the argument that violent crime, fatherlessness, and increasing levels of truancy are the result of poverty. On the contrary, the New Zealand economy has had a dream run during the time of Helen Clark's tenure, with strong economic growth, a dramatic fall in unemployment and, mainly as a result of the working for families package, an improvement in the rate of poverty amongst children with families."

"It is important that that reality is taken on board. To attribute these appalling and negative social statistics simply to a lack of material wealth is to misdiagnose the problem."

"Rather the evidence is that the main driver of these statistics over the last 9 years is a "values vacuum" and the breakdown of family structures. That is why the Kiwi Party is placing before the electorate a range of policies to restore basic values and strengthen family life in New Zealand."

"Meantime, New Zealanders should be dismayed that Labour has not only allowed such an appalling deterioration in our social statistics, but have promoted laws which have contributed to this enormous decline in behaviour and standards. Through legislation such as prostitution reform, civil unions, and the criminalisation of good parents who discipline their children, this Labour Government has become part of the problem. In these circumstances, a vote for Labour is simply a vote for 'more of the same'."

"Voters should also look closely at National through the lens of these appalling social statistics. Where are their policies to address these issues? They are offering nothing of substance and certainly have no agenda to repeal or address the folly of Labour's social engineering legislation."

ENDS

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