Mike Shaw, standing for generations of unborn New Zealanders. Picture / File
Whether the next general election takes place on September 19, as scheduled, or later in the year, as NZ First is requesting, Kaikohe pastor Mike Shaw will have his name on the ballot paper.
Mr Shaw said he would stand as an independent candidate, and while he would be seeking support for his views on issues including education, the environment and the economy, his major motivation was the Abortion Law Reform Act 2020.
The Act, he said, denied his unborn grandchildren, and all other unborn New Zealand children, the right not to be deprived of life, the right not to be subjected to torture or cruel treatment by being dismembered in-utero through late-term abortion, without painkillers, the right not to be subjected to medical or scientific experimentation or having their body parts harvested, and the right to refuse to undergo the medical procedure of an abortion, deemed to be a health issue.
He told the Northland Age that he was staunchly pro-life, adding that the calves he had been feeding earlier in the day enjoyed greater legal protection than unborn New Zealand children.
Mr Shaw had already lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission against Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Justice Minister Andrew Little, who he held particularly accountable, although the Abortion Legislation Bill had passed its third reading in Parliament by 68 voted to 51.
"Who voted for and against it are on record," he said, "but the Prime Minister, Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern, in her campaign to be elected in 2017, made it clear that this was one of her personal goals if the Labour Party was to form a government, to take abortion out of the Crimes Act and make it a health issue, and extend abortion beyond 20 weeks' gestation. Hon Andrew Little introduced the Bill," he said in his complaint to the commission.
"MPs voted down amendments to make painkillers available to the unborn child, to provide life-saving care if the child is born alive, for parents to be notified if their 13-year-old daughter sought an abortion, and making it illegal to abort based on gender selection or disability. This last part I also find discriminatory on the basis of gender and disability, in breach of human rights.
"Jacinda Ardern and Andrew Little are prime orchestrators of this serious breach of rights. It is a deliberate attempt to dehumanise an unborn generation, and creates an unhealthy psychological conditioning of the population that some people in New Zealand are expendable and can be eliminated as a health service provided by the state and funded by my tax dollars."
Mr Shaw called upon the Human Rights Commission to uphold his complaint on behalf of his unborn grandchildren and the unborn children of New Zealand, and to recognise them as natural persons under New Zealand law, entitled to the same rights afforded under the New Zealand Bill of Rights and the Human Rights Act.
And while he accepted that it might take some time to establish a political presence in Northland, he believed the coming general election would see him in with a chance.
"National's vote has slowly eroded since John Carter held the seat - we had Mike Sabin, then the by-election lost by Mark Osborne, and (incumbent) Matt King won the seat last time by only around 1300 votes," he said.
"I think he will be pushed to keep the seat against Shane Jones (NZ First, who has yet to announce if he will contest an electorate, or which one), and, given the polling since Covid-19, Willow-Jean Prime could pick up a couple of thousand more votes for Labour.
"It could be anybody's race, and I will be running as hard and as fast as I can, not on moral or religious grounds but a fundamental human rights issue."