Final push going well

The final push to get enough signatures on the petition calling for a referendum on the "anti-smacking" law is well under way with 1000's being collected over the past week.

Here are a few results,

Warriors game on Friday the 6th of June 1100
WWE Smack down last Wednesday delivered 600
Mystery creek field days brought in 2700 on Thursday and 1800 yesterday. Results for today will come out later tonight.

Also the All Blacks game will be targeted tonight.

Also on another note, this is the 400th post on the Section 59 Blog. Thank you to all who have read the blog and to those who have commented.

A special thank you to Andy for running this site and keeping people informed about this terrible law.

Update :

3700 collected at Mystery creek field days on Saturday and 1200 at the All Blacks test match in Auckland.

Unity For Liberty's response to police report on smacking cases

This is Unity For Liberty's response to the police report on smacking which came out last year.
____________________________________________

Please do not be fooled by the recent Police review and the media. It has been reported that the court has not been inundated with cases so the law is working. This is not the full story.
Firstly, they claim there has only been 15 investigations, but we are almost averaging one story a week from one table. The report also goes on to say that ?an absence of a notification on a Police file does not necessarily mean that no notification was made.?

I was speaking to a prominent Party leader's secretary, she made this comment "The police are required to investigate all reports", this is a classic case of "If we ask the wrong questions we will arrive at the wrong answer". Read on

There is a very disturbing trend that is developing in this country, this law, rather than being tested in the courts of the land, appears that it is being enforced by fear and intimidation from our Police Force. Recently a Grandmother was threatened with arrest just for restraining a 2 yr old from running on the road. The Officer made it very clear "I will let you off this time but next time I will arrest you". But there's more, this will test the above Police review figures. When the officer moved on, another woman (unsure if she was a mum or gran) come up and said, "They aren't kidding, they escorted me to the Police Station and interviewed me for the same thing last week."

We have since been made aware of more similar stories, they have been forwarded to Bob McCoskrie at Family First, please forward all stories to Bob, for him protection of the victim is more important than the story, he is a trusted person.

The secretary above, like the rest of us, assumed the police will only be investigating reported cases, who would have thought they themselves would become proactive and start intimidating grandmothers, and this was INCONSEQUENTIAL.

A solo mum, also a New Zealand citizen, who has not broken any law, the police chose to investigate her history through social services and then chose to challenge her parenting skills. She then went to complain to her local MP about her treatment, only to receive a phone call from the Police District Commander, "don't bother wasting the MP's time".

We pay out taxes to be protected by our police, now innocent New Zealanders are being attacked.

Unity for Liberty will be presenting our own review assessed from the trail of devastation that is being left behind from this Bad Law.

Let's collect these signatures and keep the politicians honest,

_______________________________________________
Go to www.unityforliberty.net.nz to print of the petition form, sign it and send it to ,

C/o CIR
P.O. Box 9228
Greerton, Tauranga

Turning the tables

by Lavinia Ngatoko from The Challenge Weekly

New Zealanders are being urged to get involved in a campaign aimed at getting the required number of signatures needed for referenda on the anti-smacking law and family issues.

Unity for Liberty, a recently formed group of people fighting the legislation, is running The Great New Zealand Table Challenge next month.

The aim is to get people armed with pens, tables and petitions out into their communities to help get the 300,000 signatures required to force a referendum at next year’s elections. These must be collected by March 1 next year.

There are two petitions, one against the anti-smacking law and the other covering the wider issue of family breakdown in the country.

Craig Hill of Unity for Liberty is asking for 2,500 volunteers, each pledging to get 40 signatures, to come out on the first Saturday of November.

This would result in the collection of 100,000 signatures, he said.

He warned that although the group sympathised with those calling for harsher penalties, it was concerned that good parents were not protected under the current law.

“It will require more than hype and hysteria to change this situation and turn our society from total disaster,” he said.

“To effect change requires calm and deliberate steps to be made. The first step for New Zealanders is to petition for a citizens’ initiated referendum so they can have their say at the 2008 election.” Mr Hill is encouraging those who would like to get involved to start preparing now by ringing their local shops or banks to ask for permission to set up tables outside their premises.

Although people are being encouraged to do this every Saturday of November, if they can get involved on more days that would be even better.

Mr Hill said his group had initially tried to find volunteers to hold placards on footpaths to raise awareness, but had found that difficult to achieve.

“People are willing to sign, but churches don’t seem interested in getting involved,” he said. Petition forms can be downloaded from www.unityforliberty.net.nz/petition.html or www.familyfirst.org.nz

Hundreds signing in Howick

Citizens Initiated Referendum Report | Howick, Auckland | 13 October 2007

Today outside The Warehouse in Howick a team of two concerned citizens manned a table. A few kilometers down the road another table was kept busy with Craig Hill of Unity for Liberty raking in the signatures and hearing from citizens who were outraged at the repeal of Section59. Craig reported that 450 signatures had been gathered today by his team in Howick.

From their position outside the warehouse the other team of two hardly had time to take a breath with people coming up to the table in an almost constant stream. Andy Moore reported that at least ten young people (about 14 or 15 years old) had to be turned away as they were not eligible to sign. Several young people who had only just turned eighteen, or would turn eighteen before the September 08 election were also eager to put their name to the petition calling for a Referendum on the anti-smacking debate.

One kind lady after signing headed off and brought back a couple of sausages from the sausage sizzle which was operating down near Pak'n Save. Two bottles of V were knocked back by one of the team members, Andy Moore - who also commented that he felt like he needed a third bottle. While initially starting off in the traditional "stand in front of the table" Auckland style, the Southerner soon suggested a change to the Christchurch method, and this was eventually seen to be a viable alternative.

After the day's efforts (9:30 am start, 5:00pm finish), the team shot across the road for a feed before heading back home.

Good keen man, good keen girl.

Wendy's medium Coke. Took me the best part of an hour to demolish.