Eye To Eye Week of 12 August 2006

Rights follow responsibilities in Rotorua

Two Rotorua District Councillors have defended their controversial plan to ban known criminals from the central city saying you don't get human rights without meeting your social responsibilities.

Earlier this month the Council voted 12 to one to ban people with five or more convictions from the city centre for three months.

The plan has been criticised by local MPs Steve Chadwick (Labour) and Te Ururoa Flavell (Maori Party) as being in danger of breaching human rights and creating ethnic targetting.

But Councillors Cliff Lee and Russell Judd defended their stance when they appeared on TV ONE's Eye to Eye with Willie Jackson on Saturday morning (August 12).

Russell Judd said: I subscribe to the concept of responsibility, and when you have proved that you’re a responsible citizen then you get rights. It’s only a construct of mankind in recent years. Magna Carta type issues they’re great, but the concept of human rights is only a new thing and it’s causing a lot of trouble and we need to get back to real fundamentals.

And Cliff Lee added that: The greatest breach of our human rights is that our children are not given the chance to grow up properly. And we’re holding the rights of parents to raise children badly above the rights of the child to be raised properly. And until we solve that problem, this problem’s not going to go away.

Also on the panel were Maori Party MP for Waiariki, Te Ururoa Flavell and principal of Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Te Rotoiti, Hawea Vercoe.

Eye To Eye with Willie Jackson will be repeated on TV ONE at 11pm on Tuesday.

ENDS

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