Government Needs to Lead on Marriage

It seemed like the whole world stopped on Friday the 29th of April to watch the marriage of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. I know my wife Anne and I sat transfixed as we watched on television (along we are told with about 2 billion others) the radiantly happy couple commit to one another in an open display of their love.

There is a beauty in marriage which resonates with the human spirit. Guests at the wedding took along some tissues because they knew from experience that nuptials touch our hearts and our spirits.

Within our culture marriage is irreplaceable. It is the most public way of displaying the depth of our love for our chosen one. It is the most deliberate way of starting a family so that our children will have the best possible start in life.

I believe that expenditure by government on marriage preparation and marriage enrichment is an investment which will pay dividends, both in a more successful nation and in savings to the taxpayer.

Longitudinal studies show that in every culture on the face of the earth, children raised by married couples have, on average, the best outcomes in health, education, and income and by far the lowest involvement with the criminal justice system. The presence of a father in the home is also critical, and the surest way of ensuring that happens is for him to be committed to the mother in marriage!

Our culture is no exception. The sharp drop in the marriage rate, coupled with the increase in separation and divorce which have characterised our society over the last 30 years or so, is directly linked to the epidemic of fatherless, child abuse and crime statistics which now bedevil our society.

I believe that re-building a marriage culture is imperative, if our claim that New Zealand is the best country in the world in which to marry and raise a family - a claim which was backed up by our social and criminal statistics in the 1950s and 1960s - is ever to be reclaimed.

Of course government alone cannot achieve that goal. All of us and especially parents and teachers need to get involved. But government can and should take the lead. It has the power to reach right across our society to Maori, European, Pacifica, Asian and all the other ethnic groups which provide the rich tapestry of today’s New Zealand.

Government can change education so that marriage features in the sex education curriculum and is esteemed as the ideal in all aspects of school life. It can provide financial and educational resources. Importantly it can, if needs be, change the law!

Religious, iwi and other third sector organisations also have a vital role to play. Indeed without them it would be near impossible for government to deliver marriage preparation and marriage enrichment courses, at the coal face.

Confronted with our appalling criminal and social statistics the re-establishment of a marriage culture is, I believe, the most vital ‘fence at the top of the cliff’ cultural initiative which our nation could take at this time. Not only will it (over time) turn those negative statistics around, but it will also lead to a more prosperous and happier country for us all.

Gordon Copeland is a former MP and the President of the Kiwi Party. He and his wife Anne have 5 children, nine grandchildren and a great-grandson. They have been married for 47 years and live in Wellington.

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