Easy divorce sought

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34151, 12 May 1976, Page 2

Easy divorce sought

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 11. The Labour Party conference today approved unanimously proposals to make the granting of divorces easier.

The conference approved remits calling for the party to follow the measures introduced by the Australian Labour Party, alleviating the need for expensive legal fees. It also approved in principle a section of the remit calling for irretrievable breakdown in marriage to be the only ground of divorce. Tlie Opposition spokesman on justice, Dr A. M. Finlay (Henderson), told the conference that experience in England had shown practical difficulties in this provision, and said it should be given at least a year’s review. Delegates also approved a remit calling for ship desertion to cease to be a criminal offence, and recommended that the policy committee be recommended to study British laws expunging criminal records after five years.

Tlie conference rejected a remit calling for the establishment of a children’s bill of

rights, a parents' bill of rights and a patients’ bill of rights after Dr Finlay said he considered them to be windowdressing. Mrs N. Sutherland (Sydenham), supporting the remit, said that despite New Zealand’s concern for the welfare of its children they had no constitutional protection. She asked for a committee to be set up to investigate the possibility of establishing some form of children’s rights — headed by Mrs M. Batchelor (Avon), and Mrs Glen Rowling, wife of the party leader, Mr Rowling. Mr M. Rata (Northern Maori), opposed Mrs Sutherland’s suggestion and said he considered the Children and Young Persons Act introduced last year by the Labour Government was sufficient. A remit calling for a code of procedures to be introduced governing the use of police dogs was accepted.

The remit said such a code would prohibit their use for crowd control and domestic arrests. It recommended that al! forms to be filled in by the public — such as legal, insurance, and the Government — be written in simple language. The conference tonight narrowly defeated an amendment calling for the views of delegates on the law relating to homosexuality to be made binding on the Labour Party.