Posted on 12/05/2004 12:38:13 PM PST by shaggy eel
This Week, Newman On-line looks at the campaign against political correctness
Last month in Britain, a poll was conducted by polling company ICM on whether the Blair-led Labour Government is introducing too much legislation that infringes personal liberty.
The poll of 1,000 people aged 18 years and over asked whether the Government is proposing too many infringements on matters that should be for individuals to decide for themselves. The poll stated:
“Recently the Government has introduced legislation on things like hunting, smoking and parents ability to smack their children. Thinking about such issues generally, which of the following comes close to your own view:
· The Government should legislate on such things even if they mean restrictions on personal liberty, or
· Too many infringements on personal liberty are being proposed on matters that should be for individuals to decide for themselves.”
The results showed that the overwhelming majority of voters believe that the Government is introducing too much legislation, which infringes personal liberty. Some 71 percent of voters agreed that “Too many infringements on personal liberty are being proposed on matters that should be for individuals to decide for themselves”, while only 27 percent agreed that “The Government should legislate on such things even if they mean restrictions on personal liberty.”
The feeling was particularly high amongst Conservative voters at 82 percent, but it also remained high amongst Labour voters at 62 percent.
I believe these concerns are not only alive and well in New Zealand but are palpable. In this country, feelings are high not only because our Labour Government has passed laws curtailing our basic freedom and choice, but also because they are also rolling out a social engineering agenda for which they have no public mandate.
Many New Zealanders worry that these changes will cause damage to the very heart of our social fabric and that the fundamental values that have made New Zealand such a great place, will be undermined.
Just this week, Labour has led Parliament a step closer to passing into law a civil contract that has been called a ‘politically correct’ alternative to marriage. By introducing the Civil Union Bill - on top of the other changes that have already been made in the area of family law - critics believe that the Government’s objective is to undermine marriage.
Marriage of course has withstood the test of time as society’s most successful child-rearing institution. Children brought up in a traditional family with two parents to love, guide and protect them, have a better chance of becoming successful, self-sufficient, contributing citizens - who are far more likely to vote for a centre-right government - than families who have gone off the rails and need to rely on the government for support.
Whether you support the Civil Union Bill or not, most people would agree that they have become totally fed up with the political correctness that pervades Labour’s administration. It is for that reason that today I am launching a campaign to end political correctness as we know it.
The objective of the PC Free New Zealand campaign is to declare war on political correctness. In particular, PC FreeNZ has five goals:
· Eradicating PC jargon
· Ending race-based entitlements and cultural correctness
· Cutting red tape and bureaucracy
· Eliminating social engineering
· The rebirth of commonsense
PC jargon used to be a joke. Remember the laughs we all had over having to say ‘ person-hole’ instead of ‘manhole’, ‘folically challenged’ instead of ‘bald’, and ‘fishers’ instead of fishermen’? Well, by toeing the line, we are pandering to a dangerous ‘lefty’ agenda. It’s time to take back our vocabulary and call a chairperson a chairman, a spokesperson a spokesman and someone who has gone off the deep end, crazy!
Most New Zealanders have become sick and tired of this Government’s obsession with race-based entitlements and cultural correctness. Special entitlements should be based on need not race, and Labour’s special funding for Maori should go. Further, while it is appropriate that we take cultural matters into consideration, consultation with Maori at local level has now got completely out of hand to the point where the majority are being held hostage by the cultural demands of a minority.
It is also wrong that small businesses of every shape, colour and size are being strangled with red tape and bureaucracy. Just this week we heard that the Salvation Army is exiting the aged care sector, not because they want to, but with all of the extra costs imposed by the Government’s laws and regulations, they could no longer make ends meet. People are being regulated to death and it’s time a chainsaw was taken to unnecessary red tape and bureaucracy.
Labour’s social engineering agenda - interfering in matters of family and morality - has also un-nerved many New Zealanders who feel that a government should be there to be a guardian for a civil society, not undermine and attack it.
Of course if commonsense prevailed in the way that it used to, the rampant creep of political correctness would be impossible. Bring back commonsense, I say!
This PC Free NZ campaign has a website at www.PCFreeNZ.co.nz and PC FreeNZ bumper stickers - modeled on the GEFreeNZ variety - are available. The website will become an ideas bank for stories of ‘political correctness gone mad’ as well as for accounts of anti-PC victories.
If you would like to support this campaign then I would urge you – and everyone who feels the same way as you do - to visit the website, sign up to the campaign and help us win the war!
Muriel Newman is a Member of New Zealand's Parliament and a member of the ACT Party.
http://www.act.org.nz
ping
How about an HC-free New Zealand? Then you could get your air force back.
,,, sterling idea! We're working on it.
Power to the KIWIS! That is, the real Kiwis and not the faggot-loving, "your culture is better than mine" kind.
But one day you'll win - and then you too can listen to the loud weeping and wailing of crushed liberals as they claim they don't know the rest of New Zealanders.:)
The government will ignore any petition, for change the politicians must be looking at a sea of angry faces in the millions outside their office windows.
,,, with this Civil Unions Bill, the Catholic bishops waited until very late in the peace to let the govenment know that it will cost votes. More groups need to do the same and very quickly. Apathy is something we're paying a high price to keep.
· Eradicating PC jargon
· Ending race-based entitlements and cultural correctness
· Cutting red tape and bureaucracy
· Eliminating social engineering
· The rebirth of commonsense
````````````````````````````````````
Now ~ those things should be instituted here, as well as there!
Go Kiwi's Go!
Big Dr Muriel Newman, MP ~ Bump!
,,, get busy!
When the British Conservatives get their efforts up and stop being the irrelevant rump High Tory country club, we will see the light here. We are far too influenced by what happens over at our former Mother Country that we follow their political fashion as well.
A ping to British FRers - British references to NZ political situation!
This is a move in the right direction!!! It's about time.
Roger that. :)
Clark to get Defender of Democracy award
06 December 2004
Parliamentarians from around the world will tomorrow acknowledge Prime Minister Helen Clark's contribution to disarmament, nuclear-free and peace issues.
About 150 Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) are holding their annual forum at Parliament and will tomorrow night present Miss Clark with a Defender of Democracy Award.
The PGA is a non-partisan international network of MPs, with members in 105 countries worldwide.
It aims to promote effective, inter-parliamentary collaboration to mobilise global political action for an equitable, safe and democratic world.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3119678a6160,00.html
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.