Newman Muriel: Care of Children Bill — In Committee Procedure 
Newman Muriel: Care of Children Bill — In Committee Procedure 
[Volume:621;Page:16696] 
Dr MURIEL NEWMAN (Deputy Leader—ACT) 
: 
 I rise to make a contribution to this part of the bill that talks about the title the “Care of Children Bill” which Opposition parties have realised is a complete and utter misnomer. This bill is replacing the Guardianship Act an Act that has withstood the test of time and does need a little bit of tweaking but not in the way in which the Care of Children Bill has done. I guess that one of the most concerning aspects of the legislation is that it is another step in the relentless drive of the Labour Party to thrust political correctness down the throats of unsuspecting New Zealanders. 
This bill redefines the family. I looked through it to see where it celebrates marriage because this is all about children. Of course as we all know and common sense tells us kids in a good married relationship family do better than children who have gone through family breakdown and all of the other trauma that that brings. Yet this bill does not celebrate marriage. In fact when members look where marriage is defined they will find that it has been redefined. What is now in its place is that according to Labour Government law a married woman is no longer a married woman but a partnered woman. A partnered woman means a woman one who is married; or two is married but living with a man or with another woman as a de facto partner; or three is not married but is living with a man or with another woman as a de facto partner. 
This bill dilutes what has been an institution in New Zealand that has long been regarded as something that should be protected. In fact Governments in other countries go so far as to encourage marriage. They do not do it for any moral or religious reasons but simply because marriage is an institution and kids do better when they are brought up in a family where mum and dad are committed both emotionally and through law to the ongoing family relationship. 
 This bill is a lost opportunity. It was an opportunity to put right family law in New Zealand—a law that has seen the marginalisation of children and certainly the marginalisation of fathers. I was very hopeful that the Government would see fit to introduce concepts like shared parenting like a proper open Family Court and I have been disappointed to see that the Government has voted those amendments down. 
One of the real concerns about the bill is that although it sounds good and has a “feel good” feeling about it if it were renamed the “Marginalisation of Children Bill” then maybe people would realise: “Hang on a minute! This bill might not do the things the Government is telling us.” 
One of the real concerns is the concept of guardianship in the bill. The old way we looked at guardianship was that there was a mum and a dad and they were the guardians of the child and other people could become guardians in exceptional circumstances. But this bill totally erodes that concept. The Government will claim that it extends the status of guardianship but effectively it erodes guardianship because under this bill one can have any number of guardians. As we heard in the debate another person could come into a child’s life for no longer than a year and then be made a permanent legal guardian. I say that that may be not very wise and we may in the future regret the passing of this bill with such a provision in it. 
But more worryingly we have already heard a lot about fatherlessness in New Zealand. It is a huge cause of concern I believe when one in three New Zealand children is growing up in families without a dad; and one in two Maori children is in that situation. Under this bill because of the erosion of guardianship the poor old dad the biological father who is no longer living with his child and in that family is marginalised even further. So I say it is a sad day for New Zealand that this bill which really gave so many people such a great deal of hope that family law was going to be fixed once and for all is failing those people.