Newman Muriel: Care of Children Bill — Instruction to Committee Procedure In Committee 
Newman Muriel: Care of Children Bill — Instruction to Committee Procedure In Committee 
[Volume:621;Page:16653] 
Dr MURIEL NEWMAN (Deputy Leader—ACT) 
: 
 I rise to take a call on Part 2 and like one of the previous speakers I think it is a disgrace that this particular bill is going through under urgency. I do not know why the Government has decided that this particular bill should be dealt with late at night and rammed through. I cannot understand that. The bill has been many many months in its gestation. There has been a huge number of hearings on it and a lot of New Zealanders are very concerned about this change in the law. It changes laws that have been in place and largely working quite well for many many years. Here we are in a bizarre manner late at night ramming this bill through. I would like one of the Government members the Ministers who are present in the Chamber to explain that to us because none of us on the Opposition side of the Chamber understand why this is being done under urgency. I realise that it is being done with the support of United Future— 
Gordon Copeland 
: No no! 
Dr MURIEL NEWMAN 
: —I am sorry; I take that back. It is being done with the support of the Green Party so maybe the Green member could take the time to explain to us why we are here tonight. 
The clause I want to talk about is clause 44. I have an amendment to set right an unfair and unjust situation that discriminates against children fathers in particular and grandparents and that is the situation whereby in general under our current family law sole custody is awarded to mothers and as a result fathers and grandparents are excluded. That situation denies many New Zealand children the right to contact with their father. Tonight in this Chamber the Government could support the introduction of a presumption for rebuttable shared parenting. All that means is that just as parents are equal before a relationship breakdown so too are they equal afterwards unless one parent clearly is not fit to be a parent. If we change the law by introducing that simple provision it would make sure that children are entitled to have the right to contact with both a mum and a dad after their families break down instead of effectively losing their dad as so many of them do now. Tens of thousands of kids effectively lose contact with their fathers every year. The figures are pretty terrible. More children lose a father through divorce and separation in New Zealand today over a 3-month period than the number who lost a father during the entire period of the Second World War. There is an opportunity for this Government to support my amendment to this bill and to put that situation right. 
It is a very sad day when the Government turns its back on what to my mind is surely an opportunity to fix a piece of law that in practice has become sadly detrimental to many New Zealand kids. I say that if the Government fails to do that—and I do not care what the words are—it will show that it does not care about children and most certainly does not care about fathers. I am very disappointed that the only party to support my amendment is the National Party. The members of all the other parties in this Parliament who try to tell us they care about kids and families are not even supporting my amendment. If they have sat here in the Chamber in this debate they would realise the amendment is not going to pass but they still will not even show their support for all the fathers who have lobbied individual members of Parliament and have had those members agreeing that yes we should change something.Now when the time is here for those members to put their necks on the block and stand up for the rights of those fathers they have all backed away. They are failing to stand and actually support the people to whom they have said privately that they agree with them. 
There is still time to vote for my amendment to clause 44. I urge the Minister to support it; he knows my feelings on that particular clause. We tried to get the shared parenting measure written into the bill during the select committee process and I would like him to support it.