Outrage over young Act members' Facebook link

Act member Heather Roy has defended the party's youth division's posting of an online quote comparing compulsory union membership to gang rape. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The Act Party's youth division is unrepentant over posting an online quote comparing compulsory union membership to gang rape.

The quote, from a Canadian opinion piece, reads: "If two men corner a woman in a dark alley and force her to have sex with them because they, the majority, have voted in favour of it, that would still be rape, not the exercise of their group right to freedom of association."

And although students and a rape prevention group have criticised Act on Campus for trivialising sexual assault by putting the quote on its public Facebook page, Act on Campus president Peter McCaffrey said there were no plans to delete it.

He would not comment on who posted the link, but told the Manawatu Standard it was not him. However, he added that it would not matter if it had been: "I don't have anything to answer for."

Act Party member Heather Roy said she would not ask Act on Campus to remove the link.

"It's a pretty tenuous link [with rape] if you ask me," she said.

"No one has been quoted - it's a link to a newspaper article."

UCOL student association president Kylie Jefferies said the analogy was disgusting and inappropriate, and it was also condemned by the New Zealand Union of Students' Associations (NZUSA).

"The fact that they continue to defend highlighting this analogy shows how little they understand of rape culture in New Zealand," said NZUSA national women's rights officer Caitlin Dunham.

"Act on Campus need to think twice before comparing their experience as members of student associations to the traumatising experience of sexual assault."

Rape Prevention Education director Kim McGregor said requiring students to join a student union was nothing like the violation and humiliation associated with rape.

She said the posting implied support of the rape analogy and should be removed.

The Act Party's Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment bill, currently before Parliament, aims to make student membership to student associations voluntary.

- NZPA