Families Commissioner lied on television this morning

Chief Families Commissioner Jan Pryor was on on Q&A this morning. She was asked about the smacking referendum. She said

JAN When it came to the recent referendum we took no stance whatsoever, we made it very clear that we were not encourage (sic) people to vote either way on that referendum.

Yet in the latest Families Commission publication Family voice Jan Pryor, in talking about progress in encouraging people to support the smacking legislation said this:

However some of this progress could be undermined by the citizens initiated postal referendum ... on the question " should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand. Should anyone be hit as a way to change their behaviour - let alone a small child...why should it be okay to hit children?

The article was also in The NZ Herald.

While stopping short of advocating a "yes" vote, that sounds like taking a stance, to me. A very public and purposeful one.Is Jan Pryor a government-funded liar?

Oh and also she was asked about the Maori seats. The Familes Commission, in its submission to the select committee, supported the Maori seats on the Auckland City Council. Pryor said the position was a " contestable view that we tend to base on evidence". But the rationale? Because how Auckland is governed affects families.

No kidding. No evidence either.

Then she said that the Commission led and mostly funded the “It's Not Okay campaign”. I’m sure the Families Commission didn’t “ mostly fund” this – and it was primarily led by the Ministry of Social Development. But perhaps Russell Brown will be able to confirm this given that he was one of the faces of the campaign.

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Who said this. And when?

"Democracy is too important to be left to the politicians. We say it is far better to rely on the commonsense of ordinary people to make decisions on the important issues facing New Zealand. Why? Because politicians simply cannot be relied on to do the right thing and to act in accordance with the wishes of the majority. They have forgotten that they should be the trusted servants of the people. They must face the consequences of their memory loss.

"We desperately need checks and balances and a system that makes politicians accountable. We simply have to trust the people and to rely on their good will and commonsense. In a democracy people have the right to govern themselves and take matters into their own hands when their MPs fail them. When people elect a government to safeguard their society, their security, culture, their liberty and their future, their elected representatives must listen to them. Democracy is lost when that elected government and its officials fail to hear the voices of the people. It is then that ordinary people have a moral duty to rise up and restore democracy themselves."

Clue: this person wanted to introduce binding Citizens Initiated Referenda, reduce the size of Parliament, and reduce the number of MPs in Cabinet to 14. Ths person is also a fairly well known hypocrite.

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What on earth is Larry Baldock thinking?

Larry Baldock wants another referendum. So he is going to launch a new petition. The question on the petition will aim to change the Citizens Initiated Referenda Act 1993.

The wording of the question would focus on the issue of whether citizens initiated referenda seeking the repeal or amendment of any law passed by parliament should be binding. It's likely to just piss people off. Even if the petition gets enough signatures there's one small problem.

The referendum calling for some referenda to be binding will itself not be binding.The Government can -and should - ignore it too. If Baldock wants to waste his time chasing his tail, good luck to him. The implications of legislation of this nature do not bear thinking about.

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Opening and closing police stations

Labour's Clayton Cosgrove is moaning that police stations are about to be closed. He is commenting on a cabinet paper he got through the OIA that is looking at cost cutting in police. He notes that already 340 cars have been chopped from the police fleet.

That`ll stop six police cars attending a smacking case then, won’t it - and stop three police cars from attending a school after someone gets smacked. Cosgrove says police minister Judith Collins has some serious explaining to do.

So she did some explaining and explained that National have opened five police stations and is opening a sixth. She also explained that Labour had dozens of police stations earmarked for closure

Pity the NZ Herald didn’t know that.Perhaps it should have looked at this media release before writing this story on the closure of police stations.Now that Collins has responded with the announcement of the opening of five police stations this year, I wonder if the Herald will just updated it with quotes from the media relase. I bet you it doesn't know that that the the new Christchurch police station is merely replacing one from Sydenham.

update The Herald has updated its story. Oh dear. Quotes from a media relase. No investigation whatsoever.

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