United Future leader Peter Dunne opened his party's election campaign in Auckland yesterday with a strong family message.
"If families are functioning well then our country is functioning well," he told about 200 people at City Impact Church.
He urged people to look to Ireland, often touted as a model of economic
recovery and success, but which was also a model of a country which had made the family the cornerstone of its society.
The Irish government recognised that a flourishing family contributed to a flourishing nation and based policies around achieving that.
The New Zealand government, however, had not mentioned the word "family" even once in last month's budget, Mr Dunne said. In fact, he doubted it could even give an answer if asked to define a family.
"I suspect that if you asked Attorney General Margaret Wilson what she would define the New Zealand family as you'd be lost in the trail of verbiage."
United Future would make family the top priority and its policies were based around that, such as splitting family incomes for tax purposes.
Mr Dunne holds the safe Ohariu-Belmont seat and is hoping to increase party support to get at least one other MP into Parliament.
However, current polling of just 0.6 per cent makes that unlikely.
- NZPA
