ACT: old-fashioned conservatives

More evidence that ACT - the party which promotes itself as "liberal" - are really just old-fashioned conservatives: Dr Muriel Newman is claiming that the government's social policies will "damage New Zealand" because they promote "family diversity" and ignore the traditional institution of marriage:

With two new family law Bills in front of Parliament - the Bill to set up a Family Commission and the Guardianship Act replacement - Labour clearly intends to replace the married family in our statutes with `family diversity'.

But, by lessening marriage's status, and promoting other family types - sole parents, cohabiting and same sex relationships - Labour is sending a signal that marriage is neither special nor important. This is despite overwhelming evidence that children in traditional married families generally do better

This shows the lie behind ACT's "party of freedom" rhetoric. A true party of freedom would promote neutral laws, which left individuals free to choose how they wanted to live. But instead ACT is backing using the law to perpetuate existing injustices and force people to pursue traditional relationships. And they accuse other parties of social engineering?

There is one good thing in Newman's press release though: an encouragement to make a submission on the Care of Children bill. ACT has put it online, and instructions on how to make a submission can be found here.