Parliament takes on clothesline look

An article from the Associated Press

Parliament briefly resembled a backyard clothesline today, when Labour MPs held up row after row of T-shirts in a bid to highlight the plight of sexual abuse victims. On the T-shirts were written the stories of the former owners, members of Courageous Women, a group for survivors of sexual abuse. The group had offered the shirts to ACC Minister Nick Smith, but he had so far refused to take them, a spokeswoman for Labour Party deputy leader Annette King told NZPA.
Dr Smith has overseen changes to clinical guidelines as to the amount of sexual abuse counselling ACC will fund. Courageous Women oppose the changes.
The T-shirts were raised in unison by the Labour MPs, after Ms King had quizzed Dr Smith on his refusal to meet a Courageous Women member this week. Ms King said Dr Smith had phoned one of the sexual assault victims this week "berating and bullying her" and calling the T-shirts a "fiasco and media circus".
Dr Smith said he totally rejected that. The woman had phoned his office several times requesting a meeting, then said if he did not respond she would go to radio news. He said he had told her an independent clinical review panel of skilled clinicians set up to investigate if ACC was properly meeting its legal responsibilities to sexual abuse victims was the appropriate place to address her concerns.
After Dr Smith answered the T-shirts were raised in rows. Speaker Lockwood Smith was unimpressed, saying the shirts were to be removed immediately, or the MPs would be told to leave the debating chamber. Standing orders said only MPs who were speaking could use visual aids, he said.
Labour MP Lynne Pillay said some sexual abuse victims were suicidal, and by the time the review reported it could be too late for them.

http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/7184986/parliament-takes-on-clothesline-look/