SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

Why saying ‘I do’ is good for families – Bob McCoskrie (Director – Family First NZ)

by Leave a Comment

[On 27 June the Dominion Post published the following article in defence of marriage and the family, by Bob McCoskrie, national director of the registered charity – Family First NZ]

On April 29, two billion people worldwide sat in front of their TV screens as they witnessed one of the most public weddings in history – the marriage of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.

No-one asked why they were getting married, why they didn’t get a civil union instead, or said that the ceremony was pointless and unnecessary. It was simply the dream that many aspire to.

Just 20,900 couples got married in New Zealand last year – an all-time low. This has led to claims that a wedding ring is unnecessary to legitimise parenthood and sexual activity. Put simply: some think marriage doesn’t matter. On that basis, civil unions matter even less – only 273 couples got one last year.

But do declining rates mean that it doesn’t matter? Should we be concerned that marriage rates are at an all-time low? Yes, we should. Marriage matters. The weakening of marriage is one of the most important social issues we are facing.

A 2006 British report said that the breakdown of the traditional married family was at the root of teenagers being involved in violent acts, taking more drugs, drinking more, and having sex at a younger age.

But the report didn’t come from a “Right-wing think-tank’ or lobby group with a “moralist agenda”. It was from Britain’s most prominent and influential Left-leaning policy group – the Institute for Public Policy Research. It contradicted years of ideology that family structure doesn’t matter.

Cohabitation statistics in the 21st century released this year by British social reform organisation the Jubilee Centre found that married couples with children are 10 times more likely to stay together than de facto couples – and marriages last an average of four years longer if partners haven’t lived together before getting married.

According to the study, in 1993 70 per cent of couples who had children after they got married remained married at their child’s 16th birthday – increasing to 75 per cent in 2006. Yet just 36 per cent of cohabiting parents were together for their child’s 16th birthday in 1992 – reducing to just 7 per cent in 2006. This indicates that marriage has become a more stable family background for raising children.

According to Why Marriage Matters – a report co-authored by 13 leading social- science scholars, including Professor William Galston, a domestic policy adviser to the Clinton administration – parental divorce or non-marriage appears to increase children’s risk of school failure, the risk of suicide, psychological distress and, most significantly, delinquent and criminal behaviour.

For full published article go to:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/5195687/Why-saying-I-do-is-good-for-our-families

OR

Family First NZ website: www.familyfirst.org.nz

Right to Life Seeks Leave to Appeal to Supreme Court

by Leave a Comment

Media Release Right to Life Inc. 24 June 2010

Right to Life, has resolved to seek leave of the Supreme Court to allow an appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal stated in its judgment of 1 June 2011 on the appeal of the Abortion Supervisory Committee and the cross appeal of Right to Life that the unborn child did not have a right to life. [Read more…]

Juries Protecting Parents From Politicians – Family First (NZ)

by Leave a Comment

Family First (NZ) Media Release 17 June 2011

Family First NZ [a registered charity with the Charities Commission] says that the anti-smacking law is criminalizing good parents and only the common sense of juries is protecting parents from the actions of politicians. It is challenging Prime Minister John Key to amend the [so-called ‘anti-smacking’] law that he has labeled “a dog’s breakfast”, and introduce the amendment that he lobbied for before he became Prime Minister which decriminalizes reasonable force for the purpose of correction

“A father was acquitted in the Wellington District Court today by a jury which threw out three charges of assault. The judge also threw out another charge of assault which the police had laid because of the father physically restraining the child, saying that it was clearly an act of reasonable force to control a disruptive and unruly child. All these charges related to a dad with no previous involvement with CYF,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.

“The dad was blocked from seeing his son for over a year while awaiting trial, although cynically, the police tempted him with the offer of allowing contact if he pleaded guilty there and then, which would have resulted in him carrying assault convictions on his record.” [Read more…]

NZXescorts, banned company director and Truth Weekender Ltd

by Leave a Comment

On 5 June 2011 the NZ Herald reported that banned company director Steve Crow – convicted and sentenced in the Auckland District Court on 24 May 2011 for breaching his four year banning order –  is now promoting a new web-based business: an escort agency (prostitution) – NZXescorts (Crow was sentenced and fined $5,000 plus court costs. He changed his plea to “guilty” after initially pleading “not guilty”).

However, the NZ Herald report did not note the fact that the NZXescorts website domain name, first registered on  21 March 2011, was listed by Crow’s close business associate and company director Dermott Malley, as being owned by a defunct company – Truth Publications Ltd  – a company which was struck off the Register of companies one month earlier – on 25 February 2011.  It was actually put into liquidation on 21 October 2009 and the auditor’s report showed it owed over $600,000 to creditors.  The registrant’s email was incorrectly recorded as dermott@truth.co.nz – (A defunct email – no longer valid – which Crow’s associate Dermott Malley used while he was a director of the now failed company).

The Domain Name Commission (DNC) was alerted to these errors by an alert NZ Herald reader who copied his correspondence to to the Registrar of Companies, whose decision last year had led to Mr Crow being banned as a director for four years – effective from 16 April 2010 .

Following notification of the errors, the DNC contacted Mr Dermott Malley and subsequently the registrant’s identity for NZXescorts was changed on 16 June 2011 to “Truth Weekender Limited”. In addition the registrant’s contact email was upgraded/corrected to dermott@truthweekender.co.nz (Dermott Malley, along with John Andrew Pin, is currently one of the two directors of Truth Weekender Limited.).

The association between “Porn King” Steve Crow and Truth Weekender Ltd, which owns the domain name of the NZXescorts business, is abundantly clear.

The NZ Herald article points out that Mr Crow intends to use his forthcoming “Boobs on Bikes” Auckland event to promote the new on-line escort business. [This will assist Mr Malley and his co-director John Andrew Pin, to promote their NZXescorts agency that is supported through The Truth Weekender].

The NZXescorts website states that the business is “part owned by Truth Weekend Limited, Skin Magazine, NZX Magazine, Erotica Lifestyles Expo and Vixen Direct”.  The latter three hardcore porn businesses are closely asociated with banned company director Mr Steve Crow while the first two Adult ‘entertainment’ businesses are closely linked to Mr Dermott Malley.

The NZXescorts website states: “… the opportunity [for prostitutes] to advertise not just here but also in New Zealand’s only dedicated weekly adult entertainment guide Truth Weekender/Skin Magazine”.

The close business associations between banned director Steve Crow and Dermott Malley in the porn industry/escort agency industry is very transparent on the public record.

The sex industry “skinescorts” agency website is owned by Multimedia Solutions Limited – a company directed by Dermott Malley, Matthew Horton and John Andrew Pin (All three were directors of the now defunct company  Truth Publications Limited). Skin Magazine is part of Truth Weekender.

For details on Multimedia Solutions Ltd and company links see:

https://www.spcs.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/Diagrams/Truth-Publications-Ltd-Diagram.pdf

Jail sentences had a ‘chilling effect’ on company directors – NZPA

by Leave a Comment

Last year’s jailing of two directors of a finance company had a chilling effect on boardrooms, Serious Fraud Office head Adam Feeley told MPs.

Two directors of failed finance company Five Star were jailed in December for more than two years for misleading investors, some of whom lost millions. [Both have also been banned for five years from directing a company].

Former managing director Nicholas George Kirk was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison and former director Marcus Arthur MacDonald to two years and three months.

Mr Feeley told Parliament’s law and order select committee that jail was a strong deterrent,

“It really works with white-collar criminals. They don’t like going to jail,” he said.

“We had … the first imprisonment sentence for a finance company director. The level of consternation among company directors as a result of that was palpable.”

He said many who raised concerns were not doing anything wrong but feared potential action.

“There is no doubt that even one imprisonment sentence of a finance company director had quite a chilling effect on the corporate boardroom.” [Read more…]