Q&A: Labour MP Tim Barnett

Labour MP Tim Barnett, was this week elected unopposed as Labour’s senior whip. Picture / Dean Purcell

You have just got your first big formal responsibility - in your fourth term as an MP. Are you a late developer?

I am a late developer in some of the skills this job demands, but I think chairing the justice and electoral select committee for the last six years, given the key legislation we dealt with, was a fairly significant responsibility.

Do you have further aspirations, like the Cabinet?

In this job I've always taken things stage by stage. I came in, somewhat surprisingly, in 1996 and was very happy to have some minor roles as an opposition spokesperson and was very pleased to get one of the big committees when we were elected in 1999. Now I'm ready for something new. I've certainly never seen a political career as necessitating becoming a minister to feel complete.

You have been personally pilloried by the religious right for promoting too many liberalising laws such as prostitution law reform and civil unions. What do you have to say to those people?

Well, it's nice to be able to quote facts back at them. I received 2500 more votes in Christchurch Central than the Destiny Party received nationally, which I think is quite a useful indication of the real appeal of some of their policies. I've never been that stung by the criticism and I think as someone who's from a minority - if you are lucky - you develop a thick skin to those things. But I have felt for others who have been hurt by it.

Do you think people who oppose same-sex civil unions are homophobic?

No. Because I think labels like that are dangerous ... they are really putting up the barrier. I prefer to be inclusive.

What do you think of National's appointment of Wayne Mapp as political correctness eradicator?

It's nonsensical and will be derided more and more as his inability to define political correctness, and the tensions between what he's saying and what his party is promoting in different areas, become more obvious. But if it becomes the catalyst to finally deal with that debate and that accusation once and for all, then I welcome it.

Are you going to get a civil union with your partner?

Eventually. Because, thank goodness, the law's changed to allow legal recognition of our relationship, it's certainly something on our agenda.

Do you think the prostitution law reform is working?

I think in terms of the key aims of the legislation, yes it is working. It's giving sex workers more ability to have some control over their work environment. It's giving them more protections. It's focusing police resources on real harms rather than imagined harms.

You were one of New Zealand's first openly gay men to be elected to Parliament. Do you think the novelty's worn off?

Now there's three gay men here, one lesbian and one transgender MP, and two of the next three people on Labour's party list, one's openly lesbian and one's openly gay, so I think in numerical terms, yes, it has worn off. There's still a way to go in terms of law reforms but I think we've dealt with the most pressing of the issues.

Any truth to rumours you may go for the Christchurch mayoralty in 2007?

Not for 2007 ... that leaves open the option for further on.