Political Context
When the Private Members Bill was first proposed by Sue Bradford in 2005, it was known as the Crimes (Abolition of Force as a Justification for Child Discipline) Amendment Bill. It was subsequently renamed to the Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Bill at the Select Committee stage. The Bill was later backed by the Labour party and for a time it 'faced a rocky passage through parliament with the main opposition party, National, giving its members a conscience vote on the issue'. A new section, Clause 4, was added as part of a political agreement with the Leader of the Opposition, John Key, and the amendment passed by 113 votes to 8 with both major parties voting for the bill. Gordon Copeland objected so strongly to the passing of the Bill into law that he resigned from the United Future Party. He also strenuously objected that Prime Minister Helen Clark ordered her caucus to vote on an issue that would normally be left to a conscience vote.
Read more about this topic: Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Act 2007
Famous quotes containing the words political and/or context:
“The real grounds of difference upon important political questions no longer correspond with party lines.... Politics is no longer the topic of this country. Its important questions are settled... Great minds hereafter are to be employed on other matters.... Government no longer has its ancient importance.... The people’s progress, progress of every sort, no longer depends on government. But enough of politics. Henceforth I am out more than ever.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“The hard truth is that what may be acceptable in elite culture may not be acceptable in mass culture, that tastes which pose only innocent ethical issues as the property of a minority become corrupting when they become more established. Taste is context, and the context has changed.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)