First hurdle far from the last as support for new law slides

By HELEN TUNNAH

The fate of the Government's promise to offer civil unions to same-sex couples will hang in the balance even if the contentious new law survives its first political test today.

Intense lobbying around Parliament is expected to see the Civil Union Bill narrowly survive its first vote this afternoon.

But a number of MPs who will back the bill today have made no promises to support it later in the parliamentary process.

If a majority of MPs vote for the bill, it will be sent to the justice and electoral select committee for public scrutiny. But if it gets only a slim majority on its first reading, even ardent backers admitted privately yesterday that there would be a real risk of support slipping in the face of any campaign against civil unions.

The Civil Union Bill would provide legal recognition for an alternative to marriage for de facto couples, straight and gay. A second bill, to be voted on next Thursday, formally removes discrimination against couples across more than 100 laws, and will particularly benefit those in same-sex relationships who have fewer legal rights than heterosexual de facto couples do at present.

Support for civil unions has already begun to slide, following claims by staunch critics such as United Future that the marriage alternative can be rejected but human rights for same-sex couples can still be acknowledged through the Relationships Bill.

While the Relationships Bill could be passed on its own, Prime Minister Helen Clark has come out strongly against a rejection of civil unions.

"We do think in all fairness that we should provide a way for people to register a loving relationship, a loving partnership, through a civil union," she said on radio.

"I care very deeply about choice for people and I don't think it's fair that homosexual couples don't have an option to have legal recognition of their relationships."

Green Party spokeswoman Nancy Higgins this week appealed for MPs to pass the two proposed laws.

She said her long-time female partner had died from a lung disease. Though the couple had bought a cemetery plot, she had no legal right to be buried beside her partner.

United Future leader Peter Dunne says anyone wanting to give legal rights to same-sex couples should support the Relationships Bill, and not civil unions.