Copeland Gordon: General Debate 
Copeland Gordon: General Debate 
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GORDON COPELAND (Independent) 
: 
 The Conservative Party in Britain last week announced a policy initiative to support marriage education and marriage enrichment courses in that country. As that is also the policy of the new Future New Zealand political party which I am honoured to co-lead that announcement has prompted me to make that theme the subject of my contribution to today’s general debate. 
However before I do so I will share some distilled wisdom on the steps that lead for the great majority of people to a successful and fulfilling life. They are really pretty simple: to get the best education one can to look after one’s health to not get pregnant before one is married to prepare well for marriage to put effort into the ongoing enrichment of one’s marriage to prepare carefully for parenthood and to keep educating oneself in parenting as one’s children grow up. All of that will also be part and parcel of the policy of the Future New Zealand party. 
The evidence is absolutely overwhelming that on average children raised by a married couple have the best life outcomes in terms of health education and income level and they have by far the lowest involvement in the criminal justice system. An evidence-based policy therefore would inevitably lead to the conclusion that the Government should do all it can to foster and strengthen marriages. 
The family unit is the living cell of society. Indeed society itself is no more than the sum total of its families. The health of one affects dramatically the health of the other. They are always directly interconnected and that is an inescapable truth. 
First-rate courses for both marriage preparation and marriage enrichment are already available in New Zealand and they are normally offered by churches and charities. However they tend still to cater to a motivated minority. That is why Future New Zealand will have a policy to make marriage preparation and marriage enrichment courses available to as many New Zealand couples as we possibly can. We will do that by a combination of course fee subsidies and TV advertising. It is a top-of-the-cliff policy and it is vitally important to the whole of our society. 
Let me give just one example. Each year 7000 young people are involved in one way or another with the youth justice system. A representative sample of those 7000 young people has been taken through a research project and it shows that just 12 percent of those 7000 young people come from a home where they are living with both parents. A further 28 percent come from a home with just one parent. The remaining 60 percent—an amazing figure—come from a home where they are living with neither their mother nor their father. 
Clearly there is a stunning and an obvious link between marriage breakdown separation and fatherlessness and our growing crime statistics. It is obvious therefore that an investment in marriage preparation which is aimed at reducing the rate of separation and divorce has the potential to reduce dramatically the number of young offenders in this country. 
I hear much lip-service about getting tough on the causes of crime but I have never heard the relationship I have just spoken about even mentioned in this House. It is almost as if members have somehow or other decided that the so-called “m” word—that is marriage—is against Parliament’s Standing Orders because we seldom hear it mentioned in this place. Yet it is so obviously fundamental to the progress of our society and to its health. Of course some will be quick to point out that marriage is not perfect. I agree but it is like democracy: it is not perfect but clearly it is the best that there is. 
I am staggered at times when I hear Ministers of the Labour Government make ridiculous statements about wanting fence-at-the-top types of policies and at the same time they say family structure is not important. Steve Maharey a few years ago was quoted as saying: “It is simple really: every man should be able to do everything that every woman can do and every woman should be able to do everything that every man can do.” Those are failed policies and we need to change.