Unity for Liberty in the News

Turning the tables

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...

Petitioning Parliament - 7/10/07

I popped along yesterday to help Simeon and Gaylene drum up support for their petition for a referendum on the making it a criminal offence to smack children.

They've had their stand in Howick for the past few Saturdays and have drmmed up big support. Nine out of ten passer-bys were happy to sign and express their disgruntlement of the present law.

Gaylene was the runner-up in the ACT on Campus essay competition, Both her and and Simeon are very switched on and it was great to see them getting signatures and answering questions. They know their stuff...

Campaign to outlaw anti-smacking law

A group of concerned citizens is putting pre-election pressure on politicians to scrap the new anti-smacking law.

Calling themselves Unity 4 Liberty, the group is running a number of awareness campaigns and collecting signatures for Larry Baldock’s petition against the act.

Craig Hill of Unity 4 Liberty said the awareness campaigns had two distinct phases. The focus of the first phase is on local areas until the required signatures have been collected, while the second phase will comprise national campaigns leading into the next election.

Mr Hill said the group is looking for volunteers for the first phase, called Feet on Footpaths, to walk or stand on the footpaths of a designated campaign area...

Call for national referendum on anti-smacking bill - 12/9/07

The Anti-Smacking Bill may have passed into legislation but that is not deterring its opponents.

On the streets in Orewa, Whangaparaoa and Silverdale this month were about 30 protesters who are part of a national campaign to have the Bill overturned. They collected 1174 signatures in three hours. Unity for Liberty spokesperson Craig Hill says people stopped their cars when they saw the placards and hopped out to sign the petitions. Voice Rodney coordinator Arna Mountain says national polls show that 83 percent of New Zealanders oppose the anti-smacking legislation.

“The Government didn’t listen,” she says. “What we want now is a Referendum on the issue at next year’s General Election...