It's always been about families
AUTHOR: Peter Dunne
A common criticism I hear of UnitedFuture is that “you don’t seem to stand for anything – because you’re in the middle, you flop from side to side as it suits.”
Well, leaving aside the small problem of our clearly defined principles and detailed policies, set out fully on our website, which give the lie to that claim, and prove the (often) media critics who promote it to be the lazy, ignorant poseurs we have long known them to be, there is still one overwhelming distinctive that separates us from all the other political parties on the New Zealand spectrum.
We are what we always have been – the family party. We are the only party that can be relied on to put the interests of families first in all policy areas, and to keep policies focused on the families and households that make up our country.
But the family party is not the “family values” party. We are here for all New Zealand families, whatever their situation, recognising the pressures upon them in their daily lives, and doing our best to support them and the communities in which they live and work. By contrast, “family values” carries the taint of conservative religious values, typified by the scary array of fundamentalist organisations (New Zealand’s version of the Mullahs) behind the forthcoming child discipline referendum. At best they represent one distant end of the spectrum only, and their arrogance in presuming to speak for all families is breathtaking, to say the least.
The one thing we do know about families is that no two families are alike. That is hardly surprising, given the diversity of humanity. Our individuality is what distinguishes human beings form the animals, so it is logical that while we all have a family structure, it is by no means a uniform situation. Those, like the extremists, who focus on family form, rather than function, miss the point. What families do, and how they function, is far more important than what they look like.
So UnitedFuture’s commitment is to families in their generic form. When Norman Kirk spoke in the early 1970s of the primary role of government being to promote policies in the interests of families, he did not then go on to define what constituted a family, or what values a family should hold. He did not need to – he knew then what we know now that family is a bigger concept than that.
So while UnitedFuture is unapologetic for being the family party, we are equally explicit that we are here for all families, whatever their shape, or their circumstances, or their concerns. Every family contributes to the rich tapestry that is New Zealand, and every family deserves encouragement to be the best it can be.
You cannot stand for anything more powerful or inspirational than that.