Gay couple plead for recognition

By AUDREY YOUNG

Marriage laws that gave convicted double murderer Scott Watson the right to marry in prison and give newly arrived heterosexual immigrants greater rights than gays already here are not just, a gay couple told MPs yesterday.

John Jolliff, 75, and Des Smith, 64, who have been together for 18 years, were making a submission at Parliament on the first day of public hearings by the select committee considering the Civil Union Bill.

The bill would allow all couples, gay or heterosexual, to legally register their relationship as a "civil union", which would give partners rights such as next of kin status.

"I have nurtured children," Mr Jolliff said, breaking down with emotion. "It seems a very simple request to have the right to stand up publicly, declare my love for Des and to say 'Yes, this is a legal and registered relationship with all the rights and responsibilities that that incurs'."

Mr Jolliff said he had been very "pissed off" hearing about the marriage of Watson - convicted of the murders of Olivia Hope and Ben Smart.

"There is a man, a convicted double murderer of young people. What right is he to be regarded as a person who is in a position to bring up and nurture children?

"We lead an ordinary domestic life. We have a special partnership. We care for each other in every way possible. We are a family which we have built. I have two daughters who love Des. I have two sons-in-law who love us both."

Mr Smith said he found it disturbing that "a heterosexual immigrant can come into this country and have more rights than I have got".

"That's not justice."

Mr Smith said he had been "horrified" at the sight of black-shirted children marching with the Destiny Church in Auckland last week in protest at civil unions.

"Maybe in their eyes I'm a bad person. But I have worked hard, I've paid my taxes, I cared for a mother who was blind, I am world-renowned for our garden and my skills in gardening and in building, I have planted native trees in this country - thousands of them - and I am a volunteer guide at the Karori wildlife sanctuary where I can impart the knowledge I have gained over many years. Tell me, is that bad?"

"We have built a family, a different family maybe, of sound building blocks. There is no weatherside around this family, I can assure you," said Mr Jolliff in reference to the earlier submission of builder David Eves, who found analogies with leaky homes.

Mr Eves saaid the foundations of society, the family, had to be protected like the foundations of buildings. He had known that untreated timber would not work, and nor would the bill.

"I think we could learn from the leaky home syndrome the lessons of what happens when we legalise certain things."