Press Release Libertarianz Party Consumer Affairs

BUY BACK OUR BABYWALKERS, JIM!

Acting Consumer Affairs Minister Jim Anderton has just announced mandatory new safety standards for babywalkers which will result in huge fines imposed on individuals or retailers, manufacturers and importers who are caught selling non-compliant models.

"Is this for real?" asks an incredulous Libertarianz spokesman, Lindsay Mitchell.

"We are told that each year up to 13 babies are hospitalised through baby walker injuries - not because the babywalkers collapse or jam limbs or run over toes - but because they fall down stairs! "

"Do you know how many babies fall down stairs without baby-walkers Mr Anderton? Why not make it compulsory, under threat of prosecution, for families with children to live in single storey homes, or better still, lets ban stairs!"

"For pity's sake Mr Anderton. What about parental responsibility and commonsense? As soon as a baby can crawl everything in it's environment is a potential danger."

"My children spent many happy hours in their walkers and they were as safe in them as they were anywhere else. Now you have probably succeeded in ringing the death knell on these entertaining toys by pushing the price of new models out of reach and banning the sale of thousands of secondhand older models. So much for the low income families whose interests you purport to represent."

"With the Commerce Commission given the powers to 'monitor and enforce the standard' and carry out 'proactive inspections', should we expect your officers to be hanging around at garage sales or school fairs waiting to slam $30,000 fines on unsuspecting parents?"

"With even bigger fines of up to $100,000 for retailers, manufacturers and importers who sell non-compliant walkers, they should be demanding that you re-imburse them for their now worthless stock and the public should be calling for a babywalker buy-back amnesty."

"Silly do you say, Jim? No sillier than this unbelievable piece of nannyist regulation."

"It's more than enough to make you vote Libertarianz!"

ENDS

Libertarianz Spokesman Lindsay Mitchell ph/fx 04 562 7944

e-mail dandl.mitchell@clear.net.nz

www.libertarianz.org.nz

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