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Bob McCoskrie is the National Director of the New Zealand conservative Christian non-profit NGO Family First New Zealand.[1]
McCoskrie has a Masters of Commerce with Honours from the University of Auckland and a Diploma of Teaching from the Auckland College of Education.[2]
McCoskrie initially worked as a tertiary lecturer in accounting, commercial law and tax law at Manukau Polytechnic for four years (1986–1990) and then as the Director of Youth for Christ South Auckland in Ōtara (1990–1994) before he founded and co-ordinated the Papatoetoe Adolescent Christian Trust (1994–2002) working with at-risk youth and their families. In 1996 he was appointed a Justice of the Peace (JP). In 2002 he joined the Christian New Zealand radio station Radio Rhema as a talkback radio host and current affairs presenter on Sky TV's Shine TV.[3][2]
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In 2006, as a 42-year old church leader, McCoskrie founded Family First New Zealand to lobby for strong families and safe communities in New Zealand, and has been that organisation's National Director and main spokesperson since that time.[4][5] In 2009 Victoria University religious studies professor Paul Morris said Family First was "successfully broadening the Christian agenda in New Zealand politics in a way never seen before".[4] In 2020 Family First was described as "New Zealand's most formidable conservative campaigners".[6]
In May 2024, The New Zealand Herald reported that McCoskrie was scheduled to speak at the upcoming "UNSILENCED: Middle New Zealand on ideology" at Wellington's Tākina Convention Centre on 18 May alongside Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki and former National Party MP Simon O'Connor. The Convention Centre is owned and operated by Te Papa Museum and the Wellington City Council. Protest groups Queer Endurance In Defiance and the Pōneke Anti-Fascist Coalition denounced the conference for allegedly promoting transphobia and said it was contacting the Council in order to cancel the event on safety grounds. While Wellington City Council Māori Ward Councillor Nīkau Wi Neera called for the event's cancellation, New Zealand Free Speech Union chief executive Jonathan Ayling defended the conference on free speech grounds.[7] Following a safety review, Te Papa allowed the event to proceed. Speakers at the Unsilenced conference included Tamaki, O'Connor and British activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (who participated via video-link). 360 people attended the Unsilenced conference while a protest organised by Pōneke Anti-Fascist Coalition and Queer Endurance in Defiance attracted 500 people.[8]
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McCoskrie and his wife Tina, who he married in a Methodist church in about 1989, have three children and live in South Auckland.[2][9]
McCoskrie has publicly spoken out against the legalisation of same-sex marriage.[10][11] He has said that New Zealand's decision to legalise same-sex marriage is, "an arrogant act of cultural vandalism" and "Makes a mockery of marriage".[12] After New Zealand legalised same-sex marriage in 2013 McCoskrie resigned as a marriage celebrant in opposition to gay marriage.[13] His anti-same-sex marriage views are consistent with Family First New Zealand.[12]
When voters rejected the legalisation of recreational cannabis in 2020, McCoskrie said that he was "pretty stoked" with the cannabis referendum results and that New Zealanders "understood the perceived benefits of legalisation were not greater than the harms that were going to come on society."[14]
McCoskrie publicly stated that Roe v. Wade – which gave the legal right to an abortion in the United States – being repealed in 2022 was a "great day".[15]
In April 2024, McCoskrie appeared in a podcast with right-wing alternative Internet radio Reality Check Radio host Maree Buscke discussing the British Cass Review on gender identity services.[16]
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