Christian Heritage Party of New
Zealand
Christian Heritage New Zealand
Leader
Graham Capill (1990 - 2003)
Ewen McQueen (2003 - 2006)
Founded
July 1989
Dissolved
October 3, 2006
Ideology
Christian democracy
The Christian Heritage Party of New Zea-
land (CHP, known for a time simply as
Christian Heritage New Zealand) func-
tioned as a New Zealand political party es-
pousing Christian values. Although it never
won seats in an election, it came close to do-
ing so in 1996 as part of the Christian Coali-
tion and briefly had a member in Parliament.
On October 3, 2006, the Party said it
would disband to allow "new things to arise
in Christian politics in New Zealand". This
came after a highly-publicised scandal which
resulted in its leader, Graham Capill, going to
jail for committing sex-crimes against young
girls.
Policies
According to Christian Heritage New Zeal-
and’s self-description, the party aimed "to
provide leadership that takes the initiative in
building a culture that affirms marriage,
strengthens families, and celebrates life as a
precious gift of God. We believe these are the
key issues that need to be addressed if we
are
to make an
impact
for
the next
generation."
It described its three key policies as "Af-
firming Marriage, Building Families and Cel-
ebrating Life". This, in effect, represented a
"[[family values|family-values" platform of
protecting the traditional family-unit, a focus
on law-and-order, and an emphasis on per-
sonal responsibility.
The party espoused strongly conservative
views on social policy.
It
favoured law-
changes to strengthen heterosexual marriage
and to prevent same-sex marriage and civil
unions. The CHP had an anti-abortion stance,
but for most of its existence, the Party sup-
ported the re-introduction into New Zealand
of capital punishment (abolished in 1989).
Christian Heritage NZ supported restrictions
on prostitution, as well as mandatory stand-
ards for television with a view to reducing vi-
olence and pornography.
In economic policy Christian Heritage es-
poused moderat