POLICY OVERVIEW

DESTINY NEW ZEALAND 2003 PARTY CONFERENCE

DESTINY CHURCH AUCKLAND

18 ALLRIGHT PLACE

MT WELLINGTON

10.30am, 25 October 2003

INTRODUCTION

After having launched only 3 months ago, Destiny NZ will be presenting stage one of its policy developments.

All of Destiny NZ policies have been designed with the family in mind. "The success of our nation will be determined by the design, health, and prosperity of our families," says Richard Lewis, the Party Leader.

The first stage of policy development covers the following topics:

- FAMILY
- EDUCATION
- ECONOMY
- WELFARE
- HEALTH
- LAW & ORDER
- GENETIC ENGINEERING
- TREATY OF WAITANGI

Stage two of Destiny NZ Policies will be presented in April/May 2004. This will cover further development of these policies, and also include such topics as defence, student loans and other key policy topics.

FAMILY

Destiny NZ believes that all policies must be developed with due consideration to their impact on the family. Every effort must be made to uphold intergenerational family values and specifically, the institution of marriage, which is the stable basis for raising children.

While we recognise that in 2003 there is a diversity of family structures that are lobbying for recognition, we believe that the intergenerational family centred on marriage, is the epitome of family ideals and the single most important contributor to the social and economic prosperity of our nation.

The Destiny Family Policy upholds a vision for families:

THE FAMILY VISION

The family is defined as a legally married husband (Man born a male) and wife (Woman born a female) - and their children (and/or legally adopted children) - a family built on unconditional love, commitment, honour, acceptance and support.

Destiny NZ objectives:

- Establish and implement "The Family Vision'.

- Recover, protect and empower the Institution of Marriage.

- Esteem and uphold the role of fatherhood.

- Esteem and uphold the role of parenting.

- Establish and implement a National Abstinence Policy for Sex Education.

Destiny NZ has designed Polices to support each of these objectives.

FINANCIAL INCENTIVES FOR MARRIAGE-CENTRED FAMILIES

Financial incentives will be given to those who choose to enter into, and stand by, a lifelong marriage commitment.

Such incentives include tax rebates in the form of "marriage milestones' for 5, 10, 15 and 20 years of unbroken marriage, greater financial support for married first homebuyers and for mothers who wish to stay home and raise their children fulltime. These incentives are not handouts, rather; we see them as investments and rewards for our families in raising whole and healthy individuals who contribute powerfully to every sector of society.

FAMILY & PARENTING INSTITUTE OF NZ

Destiny NZ proposes to develop a Family & Parenting Institute as the keeper of "The Family Vision' and the primary driver of family policies from central government through to the community.

The FPI is responsible for supporting and empowering New Zealand families on two levels.

(1) Developing strategies that support families and to monitor the health of families through accurate statistics.

(2) The FPI has a three-fold strategy in implementing "family focused' community programmes that will:

I. Recover broken families by reconnecting parents and proactively seeking to rebuild their relationships;

II. Support struggling families through community programmes that focus on marriage and parental mentoring;

III. Educate and equip married couples, pre-married couples and parents in order to powerfully strengthen marriages and their family structure.

The mechanics of these polices will be developed in stage two, and will revolve around relationship and parental mentoring, counselling and training programmes that educate and demonstrate healthy family dynamics. Topics within these programmes will range from conflict resolution to money management.

EDUCATION

Education starts in the home, which is the first place of formation. Behaviours observed, learned and experienced in the home will inevitably be manifested in our society - hence our dedicated Family Policy.

Our vision for Education combines virtues of "character' and "academic' excellence.

We as leaders and parents have a responsibility to cast a vision of success into the hearts and minds of our children so that they can begin their educational journey with the end in mind. Without a vision of success there is no motivation to succeed.

The quality of our education will only be as good as the quality of our teachers. Teachers are one of our greatest assets and should be rewarded as such - Destiny NZ policies in terms of teacher training and remuneration will reflect this.

Furthermore, Destiny NZ proposes to introduce into the national curriculum "seven strands' of Character Education.

- Identity and Purpose: "I am someone unique and special and I have something great to achieve"

- Attitudinal Development: developing a great attitude towards self, others, authorities, successes, failures, disasters, and delays

- Economics: money management skills, developing a savings culture, investments and generosity

- Vision: the ability to set goals and to visualise success

- Spiritual development: understanding our spirit, soul, and body connection

- Leadership: developing the leader within

- Health: developing a body to last a lifetime, learning to make healthy life choices.

POLICY STATEMENTS

- There needs to be formalised cohesion between Education and Business sectors in order to develop a constantly relevant and marketable workforce.

- Education institutions must produce people who are relevant to the local and international market. Currently we have many students that are studying irrelevant courses.

- Provide increased support for businesses that formally train apprentices and encourage "on the job training".

- Minimum educational standards require immediate focus, i.e. reading and writing, as no amount of formal training will benefit employer or employee if poor literacy and numerical standards of school leavers continue.

ECONOMY

The family is a small domestic economy that relates directly to the health and prosperity of the nation. Consistent with our family policies, a principle aim is to financially empower the family.

TAXES

- Destiny NZ affirms the principle of paying taxes as a duty of every citizen and business. However, we reject the socialistic principles of current government to impose high direct and indirect taxes in order to "redistribute wealth". This punishes those who actually want to do well and create wealth while encouraging those who are able to work to become dependent.

- By lowering taxes we encourage businesses and employees to participate fully in the economy thereby increasing tax revenue.

Destiny NZ believes in:

- Reducing corporate and individual tax rates in order to create an incentive to do well instead of punishing ambition and to stop the exodus of businesses and highly qualified labour. The long-term goal must be a flat tax rate.

- In line with the principle of transparency, the current tax system must be reviewed with the aim to establish a simple and transparent system.

GENERAL BUSINESS & TRADE

Trade promotes security and prosperity and is an essential building block in delivering excellence in every level of society throughout our nation.

Destiny NZ will:

- Support our businesses by slaying the "red tape" monster and reducing cumbersome compliance costs. This will allow all of us to focus on leadership, growth and international success instead of wasting resources on politically correct and business unfriendly regulations.

- Review tax laws and the "business enemy number one regulation' - The Resource Management Act - that hinders economic growth instead of encouraging it.

- Give greater recognition to our stronger performing businesses by promoting success as a positive and desirable goal. We must learn to celebrate our achievers.

- Destiny NZ supports the lowering of the corporate tax rate to a growth-stimulating rate in order to create an incentive to do well and attract overseas investors.

- We will introduce a Responsible Business Act to ensure success is evaluated not only by economical, but also by qualitative factors, i.e. environmental, social and moral impact on future generations.

- Destiny NZ encourages a "Support New Zealand Business" campaign which substitutes imported products with locally made goods.

- We must protect New Zealand industry sectors by carefully re-evaluating tariff reductions for imports and considering long-term effects on regional employment.

EXPORTERS SUPPORT POLICY

Destiny NZ is passionate about exporting and considers the export sector to be the backbone of the New Zealand industry. Due to our size, population and geographical isolation, export is not an option but New Zealand's lifeblood and must therefore be supported in every possible way.

POLICY STATEMENTS

- Not fair trade, nor free trade - only "free and fair trade' will provide long-term responsible growth, employment and competitiveness as well as peace, political stability and permanent consumer satisfaction.

- We see New Zealand's future as a leading pacific export nation, famous for its entrepreneurs, speed, ease and cost-effectiveness of commercialisation of new products as well as its exporter friendly environment.

- Our priority is to pursue tax incentives for value added exports as wealth creation should never be punished but rather encouraged.

- We will evaluate and redefine accountabilities and responsibilities of government funded overseas diplomatic and trade orientated offices in order to maximise political and economical synergies and achieve clearly measurable outcomes that benefit our exporters. Experienced exporters must be in these positions and not "governmental-style managers".

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The government must support trade missions to fast growing markets lead by senior governmental ministers in order to give accompanying exporters the appropriate market entry profile.

- We will pursue compulsory international country of origin labelling. Consumers have the right to know the origin and circumstances under which the products are made.

WELFARE

Every single New Zealander has the ability to create wealth. In order to "eat' a man has an obligation to "work.'

The State has a responsibility to provide a "safety-net' for those in circumstances of genuine need. However, each case must be carefully and closely monitored to ensure that the individual and the family do not collapse into a state of long-term dependency. Recipients with children must have firm accountabilities for the handling of benefit payments and every measure must be taken to prevent fraudulent benefits.

The cycle of intergenerational dependency must be broken.

The root causes of welfare dependency and poverty lie once again at the breakdown of the family. The answer to reducing and eliminating welfare dependency is in strengthening New Zealand families - hence our Family Policy.

NATIONWIDE WORK ETHIC

We will promote a NATIONWIDE WORK ETHIC that affirms the following principles:

- Every New Zealander has the ability to create wealth through disciplined and consistent work ethics;

- Every able bodied person should work;

- Welfare is the exception - not the norm, and should be viewed as a temporary state of transition back into the workforce.

- Parents have a responsibility to pass on a strong work ethic to their children through education and demonstration.

POLICY STATEMENTS

- Beneficiaries who are able to work should work a 30-hour week in return for their benefit except in cases of genuine circumstances such as the disabled and mothers with young children.

- An immediate review is required in all cases of Invalids and Sickness beneficiaries to evaluate their justification for long-term dependency and strict accountabilities will be enforced.

- Cases brought about by drug and/or alcohol dependency will not be deemed as justifiable. Every effort must be made to fully rehabilitate the recipient to the point of employment.

- We will review the current system of benefit payments in favour of a more simplified and universal system that gives due consideration to the age and number of children.

- We intend to pursue intensive benefit case management at a community level where accountability is most effective.

- Conditions of poverty demand immediate attention and will be a focus of Destiny NZ Policies.

- Our National Abstinence Policy will also serve to proactively discourage irresponsible childbirths.

- Furthermore, we believe there is a need to develop employment and return to work schemes for the over 45-age bracket.

HEALTH

A healthy body is a personal responsibility.

Healthy lifestyle choices begin with education and demonstration by dad and mum in the home. A stable home environment provides the emotional, physical, and economic support to underpin healthy development.

Our health policies will put personal responsibility fairly and squarely back on the individual instead of the state.

The state has a responsibility to provide a first class health service to meet all of the health needs of those in our society. However, we believe that a significant sum of health expenditure has come about by irresponsible behaviours such as smoking, alcohol, drug abuse, and illicit sexual activity.

POLICY STATEMENTS

- Consistent with our Family Policy, we will begin the process of addressing the roots of health issues by strengthening the family.

- We will promote preventative healthcare at government and community levels and we will discourage detrimental health behaviours that impact socially and economically on the individual, the family and society.

- We will pursue free healthcare for children up to 18 years coupled with intensive preventative health programmes that fully inform and educate our young people on the dangers of smoking, drugs, alcohol and illicit sex.

- Over 17,500 abortions were performed last year in our nation. We will review legislation that facilitates abortion and pursue effective alternatives such as adoption as the better and healthier choice for mother and child.

- We will protect the rights of parents to be fully informed of sensitive information pertaining to their children, and we will oppose any agenda to prevent parents from appropriately smacking their children.

- For the safety of our young people, we will take immediate action to raise the legal drinking age back to 20 and we will oppose every attempt to legalise cannabis.

- We will take immediate action to outlaw brothels and prostitution closing the door on this destructive lifestyle.

LAW & ORDER

We are deeply concerned about the dramatic increase of serious crimes involving teenagers and children who predominantly emerge from broken homes and fatherless families. Crimes of murder, sexual violations and violence are now on the conviction list of those as young as 14. Yet we all know that a life of crime would have been farthest from their minds before detrimental influences were allowed to take hold.

Our society is flooded with images of sex, drugs, alcohol and violence through media, television, the Internet and music.

- Destiny NZ will pursue stronger restrictions on broadcasting standards with respect to violent and sexual material through all communication mediums.

New Zealand features globally in organised crime. Drugs have moved out of the back alleys invading our homes, schools and the esteemed institutions of our nation. The busting of Meth labs has risen 2,840% in the last four years, but we are only just beginning to scratch the surface.

Where historically our most prominent gangs once fought and opposed each other, in 2003, they are united in their endeavour to get as many people as they can hooked on drugs.

They are operating on a level of efficiency that major corporates would be proud of. Some gangs own properties worth more than $1 million, while their members ride around on $40,000 motorcycles - courtesy of welfare benefits and drug revenue.

POLICY STATEMENTS

- It is a top priority of Destiny NZ to fully equip and empower our Police to fight crime.

- It is time to establish a dedicated ORGANISED CRIME & DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENCY, as prominent and resourced as our traffic department to eradicate illegal drugs and manufacturers from our communities.

- We support the concept of zero tolerance to crime, what good are laws if you aren't prepared to enforce them.

- It is time to give the police the power and the tools to do their job. Therefore, CIB and serious crime investigation will receive much greater support, and specific strategies to retain and recover experienced officers will be pursued.

- We will pursue stronger sentencing for serious crime, and particularly crimes of drug supply to minors.

- Destiny NZ will repeal the Prostitution Law Reform Bill thereby removing a "state endorsed' Organised Crime enterprise.

GENETIC ENGINEERING

The pursuit of discovery and innovation on many frontiers will always be a hallmark of mankind, but the ability to fully harness and maximise the potential of these discoveries will lie in the strength of ethics and integrity of those leading and governing such advancements and discoveries.

POLICY STATEMENTS

- Destiny NZ is next generation minded and will not compromise the safety of lives, land or resources for the prospect of uncertain economical gain.

- Destiny NZ opposes the lifting of the GE moratorium until clear evidence proving the safety of GE organisms is obtained.

- We support the continuation of LABORATORY ONLY research for food, farming and medicine, providing extreme caution and stringent safety conditions are adhered to.

- We must fiercely safeguard the "clean green' status of New Zealand.

TREATY OF WAITANGI

Central to our Treaty Policies is the support of Maori whanau through our Family Policy.

Destiny NZ believes that the key to resolving the complexities of issues facing Crown and Maori is by fully restoring the Crown, Maori relationship to achieve genuine unity.

Destiny NZ has developed a set of foundational principles to underpin Policy development.

TREATY POLICY PRINCIPLES

Psalm 24

1 The earth is the LORD's, and all its fullness,

The world and those who dwell therein.

- We acknowledge that the land of New Zealand and the people thereon belong to God. Honourable stewardship of the land through observance of biblical principles leads to a land and a people of health and prosperity.

- We acknowledge accountability to God for this stewardship and a responsibility to develop the land and to harness its resources for the benefit of current and successive generations - passing on a land and a people of peace and prosperity.

- God created all men equal.

- National unity must be achieved, upheld, and protected. We oppose any attempt to divide the people of this nation. National unity is a pillar of strength and a fundamental key to receiving the blessing of God and underwriting the success of future generations.

- We acknowledge that Maori are the Tangata Whenua of New Zealand.

- We honour the "Treaty of Waitangi' (Te Tiriti o Waitangi) as a significant foundational document. Moreover, the Treaty is recognized as a "covenant' agreement, which is perpetually relevant and binding.

- All covenants must be honoured.

- We must bring resolution to past offences to bring healing and full restoration.

- The present generation of leaders (Crown and Maori) have a duty to come together and fully reconcile the relationship. In doing so, the issues that face Crown and Maori can be confronted in unity - because we all want the best for current and future generations.

- We must clearly interpret and define the principles of the Treaty as they relate to every aspect of New Zealand life for effective future interpretation - to establish universal standardised principles of governance.

- The correct forums for communication and a reconciliation process must be established and agreed upon (i.e. national and regional Hui/meetings), and a realistic timeframe and negotiation framework must be decided upon.

- Crown and Maori communication must be characterised by genuine respect, honesty, transparency and integrity. Our leaders must demonstrate a willingness to listen and understand.

- We must achieve expedient full and final closure to past injustices by way of compensation and acknowledgement of wrong. This must occur in a defined and realistic time frame with adequate resources to achieve this purpose.

- In any decision making process the utmost consideration must be given to the impact of decisions on our future generations.

- Maori must be able to uphold their unique identity that is embodied in the culture and language, empowered to reach their full potential, and to contribute fully to the future of New Zealand.

- We must uphold the best interests of all New Zealand families and all New Zealand children.

- An "official record of the history of New Zealand (in a national and international context) must be written with an agreed factual and balanced interpretation. This process will enable all the peoples of New Zealand to known and understand the history of our nation and provide a foundation of truthful understanding.

ENDS

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