Larry Baldock Why should we blindly accept the authenticity of the signatures on the Kiwi Party's pro-belting petition? It's not as if conservative Christians haven't lied about the extent of their support before. Case in point: the Coalition of Concerned Citizens. They claimed to have secured 800,000 signatures against homosexual law reform, which turned out to be a gross exaggeration. There were more than enough falsifications scribbled down to invalidate it, leading to its abandonment as a propaganda tool. Larry Baldock doesn't sound at all sure that isn't the case with this one, so it will be interesting to see what happens. As for the microparty in question, it wants a Royal Commission on "Family Breakdown," which will investigate how the Prostitution Reform Act and Civil Union Act (amongst other legislation) has affected "The Family" (although to be fair to Baldock, he did mention National's benefit cuts in the early nineties, albeit in passing). The DPB is also mentioned, as are the consequences of "fatherlessness." What about alcoholic and violent straight dads and their negative role modelling for children under their "care?" Oh, and Baldock wants a lowered threshold for any future citizens initiated referenda. He has little chance of achieving this- in fact, if New Zealand First doesn't survive the next general election, there may be incentive to repeal the Citizens Initiated Referenda Act 1993 before it can be further abused to attack the human rights and civil liberties of others- especially issues like same-sex marriage and inclusive adoption reform in the intermediate future. However, more importantly, we need a written constitution to counterpoint the malignant effects of the CIR Act and its 'direct demagoguery'. Now that it has been used to attack childrens rights, how can we be sure that we are safe from its effects. Craig Young - 11th March 2008