FI - 330 CIR Update no 18

24 December 2007 - Family Integrity #330 -- CIR Update no 18

-----Original Message-----
From: Larry Baldock [mailto:l.baldock@xtra.co.nz]
Sent: Sunday, December 23, 2007 7:57 PM
Subject: CIR Update no 18

Merry Christmas

You may remember in my last update no 17 when we had 225,000 I said that hopefully we would be as close to 250,000 as possible before the end of the year.

Well congratulations to all those who have worked hard during December. The "Christmas in the Park" type events have been fruitful for collecting and we can now enjoy a holiday and Christmas dinner knowing that ......


.................our new Total is 245,291

We are aware that there are as many as 2,000 signatures collected already that simply have to be mailed in after Christmas, so we should be able to be very near our target of 250,000 before the end of the month. Just yesterday Barb and I collected 250 in 2.5 hrs on a busy street corner here in Tauranga.

That will be a quarter of a million signatures and as I said to Sue Bradford on Morning report last Friday, "We are going to have a referendum where all New Zealanders can have their say."

When I raised the point with her that there did not seem to be any increase in prosecutions of the real child abusers, Sue Bradford said "my bill was never meant to solve that (child abuse and child violence) problem."

If you are then left wondering what the law change was all about, you can answer that question pretty easily by listening to the rest of her comments, or should I say ranting and raving about hitting and beatings. She leaves no doubt in my mind that the plan was always to eradicate any form of parental discipline, and that it won't be long before even occasional smacking will not be tolerated by the police.

You can hear the interview from Friday 21st December on http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport

and then click on smacking bill report at 7.42am.

A special note of thanks is due to Unity for Liberty's Craig Hill along with all the volunteers that have been linked with them and what they have generated in the last two months. At the end of October in Update no 15 when we announced Craig's idea for the 'Great NZ table challenge we had 212,591.

So that's 32,000 generated so far in the last two months. (Nov 12,000; Dec 20,000)

Remember we were able to collect 200,000 in the first four months, so with the momentum building once again we can have confidence to believe we will reach our goal of 300,000 by March 1.

Our success will be due to the fact that we are working as a team with so many individuals and organisations and I am very grateful to you all for your support this year. Barbara and I have been enriched by meeting so many of you up and down the country.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas with your families and a great start to the New Year.

Warm regards.
Larry & Barbara Baldock