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TheCoalition of Concerned Citizens was aNew ZealandChristian conservative pressure group, and one of several attempts to form pro-censorship, anti-abortion, anti-gay and sex education opponents into a comprehensive social conservative political coalition. Its founders includedKeith Hay,Peter Tait, Barry Reed, andBill Subritzky.[1]
The CCC was originally formed to fight the New ZealandHomosexual Law Reform Act, although its membership also unsuccessfully tried to defeatDavid Lange'sFourth Labour Government at thegeneral election of 1987, through infiltration ofNew Zealand National Party branches.[2] Besides its conservative stance on moral issues, the CCC was also stronglyanti-Communist and pro-Western. It alleged that there was a conspiracy by Communist groups like the pro-MoscowSocialist Unity Party (SUP) to infiltrate the Labour Party, the trade unions, and exploit various popular issues like theanti-Springbok tour protests,Māori biculturalism, and theanti-nuclear movement.[3]
In response to perceived Communist influence within these popular causes, Coalition activists and supporters supported maintaining ties withSouth Africa and preserving theANZUS security alliance with theUnited States andAustralia.[4][5][6] It also opposed the introduction of Māoribiculturalism andmulticulturalism into the education system as 'anti-Christian' for allegedly promoting alternative religious beliefs.[7][8][9]
According to Laurie Guy, the coalition was disproportionately dominated by members of theReformed Churches of New Zealand andPentecostals.[10] It produced a newsletter calledCoalition Courier. Some of its more moderate membership left and joined the Christian Heritage Party (later renamedChristian Heritage New Zealand, now defunct) after 1989, disgruntled at the group's perceived tendencies toward right-wing extremism. During its existence, the organisation also produced an anti-gay booklet entitledThe Social Effects of Homosexuality (1985), which relied significantly on the work of controversial US psychologistPaul Cameron.[11]
The group ceased to exist in the late 1990s.
