Thank You Very Much!

Dear Ms Collins,

Thank you for again dragging the ethics of our government (and our country) through the mud.  It's nice to know that every time it looks like we've reached a new low, the National Party will find a way to stoop even lower.

With respect to your proposal to remove the human rights of people accused of certain crimes - if you can't get a conviction in a court of law, it is morally indefensible to declare them guilty and treat them as criminals.  That's a finer point of ethics that most people pick up somewhere in primary school.  Perhaps, if getting convictions is so difficult, you could direct the NZ Police to spend less time sniffing around activists' underwear and more time actually investigating child abuse.  It's just a thought.  By the way - my opinion isn't because I like people who hurt children.  I don't, I think they're scum.  Nonetheless, if I don't stick up for people who are unpopular, how the heck can I expect anyone to stick up for me?

I'd also like to add that similar laws (although they at least require a conviction) have been implemented overseas and the main takeaway is that they don't actually work:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah%27s_Law#Sarah.27s_Law
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megan's_Law#Study_of_effectiveness
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica%27s_Law#Controversy_and_criticism
I'm assuming your staff would have been able to pick that up from a five minute Google search, inclining me to believe that the timing of this announcement is rather more about political chaff than concern for small children.  Oddly enough, most adults are able to be angry about more than one thing at a time - and yes, I'm still extremely pissed off about the GCSB spy bill.

Regards, and thank you for your time.  I hope you get fired at the next election.

Stephanie Pegg