Act selects journalist to contest North Shore seat

By FRANCESCA MOLD

A journalist who published a list of convicted child molesters and sex offenders is to stand for the Act party in the North Shore electorate.

Deborah Coddington, the former deputy leader of the Libertarianz party, announced her decision yesterday.

Ms Coddington, who writes for North & South magazine, said her decision to run for Parliament was not made lightly. But it was influenced by deep concerns she has about the welfare of New Zealand children.

She said Act was the only party that offered solutions to deal with problems affecting children, such as poor literacy, abuse and neglect, in a pragmatic way.

Those solutions included giving people choice, lifting economic growth and taking a hard look at how welfare was constructed to lock people into dependence and poverty, she said.

Ms Coddington expects to keep working for North & South at least until the election campaign begins, when she will take a leave of absence.

Act president Catherine Judd said Ms Coddington had "great courage, vision, high ideals and a great depth of compassion for her fellow human beings".

Ms Coddington's position on the Act party list is not decided yet but it is expected she will be given a high ranking, possibly even ahead of some MPs.

Ms Judd said she expected Ms Coddington to be rated highly by the Act membership.

Act leader Richard Prebble pointed out that the North Shore seat is Act's third best performing electorate in terms of party votes.

Ms Coddington stood on the list for the Libertarianz in 1996 and 1999 but she said those attempts had not been serious. "This time I'm serious. I really want to be an MP."

She said her liberal philosophies had not changed since her connection to the Libertarianz party. She was still passionate about freedom.

"But Act have got more solutions that can be applied and address the problems."