Bob McCoskrie: It’s Business as Usual

With special votes yet to be counted, we can confidently say that we have a new Government.

As we await the final count and watch the make-up of the National-led Government under Christopher Luxon’s leadership and the new ministerial portfolios, not a lot will change for us.

It’s business as usual…

**  We still need to empower parents to push back against the radical and extreme Gender ideology, and sexuality education curriculum and the divisive critical race theory being indoctrinated in schools. NZ First has made some excellent comments around this issue, and National and ACT have indicated some concern but whether this all equates to action and the removal of the extreme elements of this curriculum is up to us and to parents in their local communities. We also need to protect teaching professionals who are caught up in the pressure from government organisations including the Ministry of Education to blindly and obediently buy into this false ideology.

**There will be continued attempts to liberalise our drug laws, although Christopher Luxon says it’s not on his agenda, but ACT may use their libertarian philosophy and lack of social conservatism to push the agenda with the help of the Greens and Labour and Te Pati Maori.

There will be continued attempts to argue that NZ needs hate speech laws – which we don’t, and there will be a need for us to protect religious freedom – specifically Christian beliefs in the workplace and public domain (social media) which are the obvious target. Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) is the new cultural deity that everyone must bow down to. But what it really is is deception (confusion around sexuality and gender and cultural unity – in other words, identity politics), inequality (only the views of certain minorities matter and language is defined by the left e.g. marriage, gender) and exclusion (particularly Christian viewpoints and beliefs). Try bringing up a Christian viewpoint on marriage, gender or abortion at the next DEI meeting you attend and see how diverse and inclusive it really is – or isn’t!

** We need to continue our call for an Inquiry into the public health harms of pornography which are having a massive negative effect on especially our young people, and across society in general

** We need to continue our ongoing advocacy work and research in the areas of marriage & families, and the benefits those bring to a strong society and nation.

** We still have one of the most extreme abortion laws in the world. Despite Christopher Luxon saying it’s “off the table”, nothing is off the table when it involves protecting our most vulnerable and innocent and protecting pregnant women who just need hope, support and better options. We will never stop fighting for the rights of the unborn child to be recognised in our law.

** We still have the dangerous and flawed euthanasia law which the architect David Seymour and his assistant Brooke Ven Velden want to see expanded. Nope – not under our watch!!

** We still have a “conversion therapy” law which is designed simply to criminalise loving parents and caring counsellors and medical professionals who reject gender ideology and culture sexuality.

** We still have an anti-smacking law that has failed in its aim to reduce child abuse, but which has harmed parenting in New Zealand, and we are seeing the outcomes of that undermining of parents and the undermining even of teachers and police in the way that young people have no respect for authority or consequences.

** We still have a prostitution law that enables small brothels to operate in residential areas next to family homes, fails to protect communities and families from the effects of street prostitution, and exposes vulnerable women and girls to sexual violence and sexual exploitation and allows men to treat women as commodities.

** We still have a harmful drinking culture in New Zealand which is leading to alcohol abuse and addiction, and to family violence, injury and death.

** We still need to help Government departments learn the biological and historical and factual definition of the word “woman” – so that public policy can tell the truth on the protection and welfare of women.

And there are many other issues around gambling, surrogacy and sperm donation, drug testing, three strikes legislation, income splitting and parental notification.

We have a new conservative-leaning Government – but it’s not necessarily a socially- conservative-leaning Government.

We need to be the watchdog on all of these issues.

However, the good news is that as a result of the election, the so-called ‘parting of the red sea’ and a swing back to the right, there is an increased number of social conservatives in Parliament.

We will be seeking a working relationship with these MPs so that we can support them, provide resources and research in the background, help ‘stiffen their spine’ against the onslaught that they will inevitably face in the Parliamentary environment, and regularly pray for them.

I have already contacted a number of them congratulating them on their election or re-election.

Let me also acknowledge Simon O’Connor who lost his seat after a ‘hit job’ by the ACT party on his electorate – primarily because he was upfront and honest about his pro-life, anti-euthanasia, pro-Israel and pro-free speech views. It says a lot about the ACT party that they targeted a National seat after the favours done to ACT by National over many previous elections in Epsom – but to Simon, we wish him well. He has always been one of the good ones in Parliament.

Our ability to research, advocate for and keep families informed as to the issues affecting them, and ultimately be a “family watchdog”, is only possible because of your investment.

Ultimately, we want to be a voice for you – for the issues that you care about.

We trust that you’ll appreciate our common-sense, researched and credible approach to the many family and political issues in the media and public domain as we plan for the next three years of this new government.

Thank you for being part of the grassroots movement to promote marriages, life, family, and freedom. We will continue to be uncompromising and unapologetic in our promotion of the socially conservative values and laws which have benefitted our society for hundreds of years.

Stand with us as we stand for families.

It’s business as usual.

Bob McCoskrie is the National Director of Family First New Zealand, he has a Masters of Commerce with Honours from the University of Auckland and a Diploma of Teaching from the Auckland College of Education. He posts regularly on McBlog - This article was published HERE