Tag Archives: New Zealand

News

New Zealand considers bill to allow freedom of association on campuses

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Well, at least it’s passed it’s first reading. Basically, there are eight government-run universities in New Zealand, and students attending them must join at least one of the leftist campus clubs and pay dues to the leftist club. There is virtually no way to get your money back, and there are virtually no right wing clubs on campus to join – they all get banned, much like pro-life clubs are banned in Canadian universities.

Here’s the summary. (H/T E-mail tip from Matt and Madeleine Flanagan)

Excerpt:

““ACT on Campus is thrilled that ACT MP Sir Roger Douglas’ Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill has been drawn from the private member’s bill ballot in Parliament today.

“ACT on Campus calls on all MPs to support student’s right to Freedom of Association, as guaranteed by the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” said ACT on Campus Vice President Peter McCaffrey.

“Sir Roger’s bill, originally drafted by fellow ACT MP Heather Roy, now Associate Minister of Education, has students up and down New Zealand excited and we hope this bill makes it all the way to law.

“Student Associations are the only organisations left in New Zealand that can force membership onto someone and students have long been fighting to be given the same rights as all New Zealanders.

“The local tennis or rugby club can’t compel membership and instead relies on providing a good quality service that people want in order to attract members – student associations should be no different.

“It is time to end the unfair funding, by all students, of the political activities of radical left wing groups, and put an end to corruption and fraud at these unaccountable and unrepresentative student associations,” said ACT on Campus Vice President Peter McCaffrey.

Here’s the bill itself.

Matt Flanagan reports that the bill has passed its first reading! I think this is a very helpful story to understand the level of psychological confidence that causes leftists to disregard fundamental human rights and force their views on those who disagree with them. Fascism is solely and completely a phenomenon of the left, and the road to fascism goes through socialism.

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Commentary

Twenty-one reasons why marriage matters

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From the National Marriage Coalition in New Zealand. (H/T Jennifer Roback Morse)

Summary:

FAMILY

1. Marriage increases the likelihood that fathers have good relationships with their children
2. Cohabitation is not the functional equivalent of marriage
3. Growing up outside an intact marriage increases the likelihood that children themselves divorce or become unwed parents
4. Marriage is a virtually universal human institution.

ECONOMICS

5. Divorce and unmarried childbearing increase poverty for both children and mothers
6. Married couples seem to build more wealth on average than singles or cohabiting couples
7. Married men earn more money than do single men with similar education and job histories
8. Parental divorce (or failure to marry) appears to increase children’s risk of school failure
9. Parental divorce reduces the likelihood that children will graduate from college and achieve high-status jobs

PHYSICAL HEALTH AND LONGEVITY

10.Children who live with their own two married parents enjoy better physical health, on average, than do children in other family forms
11.Parental marriage is associated with a sharply lower risk of infant mortality
12.Marriage is associated with reduced rates of alcohol and substance abuse for both adults and teens
13.Married people, especially married men, have longer life expectancies than do otherwise similar singles
14.Marriage is associated with better health and lower rates of injury, illness, and disability for both men and women

MENTAL HEALTH AND EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING

15.Children whose parents divorce have higher rates of psychological distress and mental illness
16.Divorce appears significantly to increase the risk of suicide
17.Married mothers have lower rates of depression than do single or cohabiting mothers

CRIME AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

18.Boys raised in single-parent families are more likely to engage in delinquent and criminal behaviour
19.Marriage appear to reduce the risk that adults will be either perpetrators or victims of crime
20.Married women appear to have a lower risk of experiencing domestic violence than do cohabiting or dating women
21.A child who is not living with his or her own two married parents is at greater risk of child abuse

This is fun to read! You can learn to defend marriage, even if you favor lifelong chastity over marriage like I do.

The full PDF is here.

Videos

Dr. Matt Flanagan explains what moral relativism is and why it fails

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Check out this 5-part video of Matt Flanagan’s recent lecture at the Thinking Matters conference in New Zealand.

If you don’t understand what moral relativism is, this is a thorough treatment that covers all the bases.