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ACT to repeal human rights protections

Fri 26 Aug 2005 In: New Zealand Daily News

In a blatant courting of the religious right vote, ACT is telling Christian voters it will repeal Human Rights Act protections for GLBT people. The promise is part of a nine-point pledge by ACT to Christian voters, outlined in a special brochure entitled "Vote ACT because you're a Christian - 9 Actions To Protect Your Rights And Way of Life". Human rights protections for GLBT will be dumped because: "Liberty may restrict the state's right to punish self-damaging behaviour, but that makes it even more important that the peaceful social sanctions of healthy communities are not suppressed." In a separate pledge, the party says it will "sack 'human rights' commissioners who use taxpayer money or coercive powers to promote political correctness". ACT MP Stephen Franks says the courting of the Christian vote is a recognition of the power of the religious right lobby. "The tribal identification of Catholics and other mainstream clerics with Labour because of their "social justice" ideology, allowed the left to ignore organised Christianity," he says in a 'letter to Christians' on his website. "But the new activist Christian movement seems to be so well organised and sophisticated (Maxim for example) that it is natural to think about relevant questions in the context they create." Franks says ACT has always been opposed to human rights protections because "true civil rights are the hard won individual rights to freedom from coercion, not freedom from the natural social consequences (short of force or threat of force) from lifestyle choices."    

Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff

First published: Friday, 26th August 2005 - 12:00pm

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