Coddington Deborah: Commission for the Family Bill — First Reading 
Coddington Deborah: Commission for the Family Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:617;Page:13112] 
DEBORAH CODDINGTON (ACT) 
: 
 I am going to congratulate Craig McNair on the Commission for the Family Bill. 
Clayton Cosgrove 
: The grand coalition! 
DEBORAH CODDINGTON 
: Well it is good to see a young member of the House who does not have the cynical world-weary “thumb-your-nose” view on any attempt to do something good that other members of this House have. I am serious. The ACT party is consistent in that its members do not support any commission for the family so we are not supporting this bill. But I do not see the need for other members in this House to say this bill is wasting our time. The last member who spoke criticised Mr McNair for wasting the time of the House. I would argue that her member’s bill would waste the time of the House too because it would be better to get people who are on welfare off welfare and out into work than have them racking up more welfare and locked into dependency for the rest of their lives. 
The purposes in the explanatory note of this bill are good.There are good things in this bill. There are things in this bill that everyone in New Zealand should look at if they are serious about the family. The family is the basis of a civil society. The family is what keeps a civil society together. If we do not have families that function well then we do not have a society that functions well. What does it matter that this member is newly married and does not have children? I see a number of members on that side of the House who have no children either. Does that disqualify them from commenting on legislation that seeks to protect the family? 
Peter Brown 
: We’ll have to think about that! 
DEBORAH CODDINGTON 
: They say they will have to think about it. I do not think so. If we were disqualified from speaking on legislation just because we did not have experience in various areas there would be a lot of people in this House who should not be getting up and speaking. United Future members I notice in their legislation mentioned the word “family” in only six out of 60 clauses. Yet they say they are the party for the family. Their bill was really about building up and inflating the bureaucracy. It was all about superannuation for commission members etc. etc. This is the exact reason why the State the Government should not be involved in the family at all until someone gets hurt. When someone in a family is breaking the law that is when the State should step in to protect them. But the carping that has gone on tonight under the pretence of debate shows exactly why Government should not be involved in the family. Labour members are saying: “We support the family only when it is our bill. When it is your bill we don’t support the family. It’s all different. It is a waste of time.” 
Clayton Cosgrove 
: The bus has left. It’s gone. 
DEBORAH CODDINGTON 
: Clayton Cosgrove says he has missed the bus so Clayton Cosgrove believes that the Government’s Families Commission is perfect. Well we shall wait and see when it comes in. I am sure there are parts of this legislation that could have improved Labour’s legislation by a long shot. 
Steve Chadwick 
: Have you matched them up? 
DEBORAH CODDINGTON 
: Has that member defined what is a family? Does that party know what is a family? Therein lies the problem of the State getting involved in trying to define what is afamily. According to that party a “family” is anyone a person has some sort of spiritual or emotional connection with. If we get down to that level of definition it is “jokers’ wild” because then the family means anything. If the Government concentrated more on ensuring that every child was a wanted child and that every child had two parents who whether or not they stayed together were financially emotionally and intellectually committed to the welfare and upbringing of that child then family life in this country might be a lot improved. 
Having a child is the greatest thing that two people will ever do in their lives. It is a gift. That Government in the Budget that is coming out will lock more and more families into dependency and welfare and consign more children to the scrapheap of dependency on the State than anything else it has done in its term of Government. The Government will be a welfare Government. It will destroy the family even more than it has now. That is what those members should be ashamed of.