Gay MPs take back seat over bill

By HELEN TUNNAH

Labour's gay MPs will limit their public enthusiasm for the contentious Civil Union Bill as the Government tries to prevent critics accusing it of pandering to the pink vote.

Associate Justice Minister David Benson-Pope has asked Chris Carter and Tim Barnett to let him front the potentially fraught debate on civil unions.

"I absolutely respect and understand how strongly they feel about this," he said yesterday. "But ... this is predominantly an issue about human rights, it's not about heterosexual rights or gay rights.

"It's helpful if they're not identified as the main supporters of the bill ... because that lends fuel to the fire that this is pandering to the gay community, which it isn't."

Mr Benson-Pope yesterday tabled the Civil Union Bill and its companion, the Relationships (Statutory References) Bill, which changes scores of laws to give legal rights to civil unions and de facto relationships for both homosexual and heterosexual and straight couples.

MPs will debate and vote on the Civil Union Bill on Thursday and the Relationships Bill next week.

More MPs are expected to support the Relationships Bill, on the grounds it removes discrimination, and it could become law without the civil union legislation.

Opponents of civil unions, particularly United Future, have mounted a campaign against the new legal relationship for both straight and gay couples, labelling it a threat to the institution of marriage.

United Future leader Peter Dunne says the law's real intent is to give state sanction to same-sex "marriage".

Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday rejected that, but Labour, which promised a civil union bill in its 2002 election manifesto, is sensitive to claims it is simply pursuing a "politically correct" agenda.

A draft of the law, released only last Friday, had been changed by yesterday's tabling of the actual bill, and references to couples in civil unions being "treated the same" as married couples had been removed.

Instead, the language had been changed to discuss the legal rights and responsibilities of civil unions and de facto relationships.


Helen Clark, who has been married for more than two decades, said again yesterday that she personally would have preferred a civil union.


She said a civil union was not a marriage by another name.

"No, it isn't. A number of people who are making that allegation are also at pains to say that marriage is something very special and more than just legal recognition.

"This bill is simply about legal recognition of a partnership and that partnership is a civil union."

The Government had been conservative in its approach, the Prime Minister said, and would not be changing the law to let gay couples marry.

"The Government accepts the Marriage Act should stay as an act which is accessed only by heterosexual couples, that is by men and women.

"The civil union is another option, which can be used by homosexual couples or heterosexual couples; it's a matter of choice."

Some parties have offered their MPs a conscience vote on the two bills.

Helen Clark said she expected enough MPs would vote for the Civil Union Bill for it to be sent to a select committee for public feedback.

Other party leaders expected to vote for the bill are Don Brash, Rodney Hide, Jim Anderton, Rod Donald and Jeanette Fitzsimons.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has not said what he will do.