Civil union backers reject referendum call

Peter Brown

Backers of the controversial Civil Union Bill have rejected calls for a referendum on the issue.

Manoeuvring on the bill has caused a number of MPs to make public their positions - including National leader Don Brash, who said yesterday he would oppose the bill and Labour's Muslim MP Ashraf Choudhary, who said he would support it.

New Zealand First MP Peter Brown says he is going to ask Parliament to hold a referendum on the bill at the next election to find out whether there is a public mandate for it.

Dr Brash agrees a referendum should be held on moral issues as important as the Civil Union Bill.

But Government MPs David Benson-Pope and Tim Barnett have rejected the call, saying a referendum is not necessary.

Mr Benson-Pope argued the Government had a legal responsibility to remove discrimination in the law.

New Zealand has human rights laws that say lesbian and gay people should not be discriminated against.

Mr Barnett said New Zealand's relationship laws did discriminate because these offered no legal status for same-sex couples, and civil unions solved that problem.

"If they are subject to a referendum then New Zealand's whole human rights law is under threat," Mr Barnett said in a statement.

Three political parties had in their election manifestos undertaken to support such legislation.

Four polls showed majority public backing for the proposals, he said.

Analysis of select committee submissions on the bill had found opposition from people with genuinely held religious beliefs and a deep hostility to homosexuals.

Those who would directly benefit from civil unions were overwhelmingly in support of it.

Mr Barnett also said no other country which had introduced civil unions or same-sex marriages had held a referendum in the process.

Mr Benson-Pope was yesterday confident "a majority of MPs" would pass the bill.

The Government expects between 65 and 70 MPs will back the bill when it comes up for its second reading on Thursday.

That would give it a comfortable majority in the 120-member Parliament and set the bill on its way to becoming law, but opponents have been lobbying strongly to turn the numbers around.

The bill passed its first reading 66-50 in June, but some who supported it then are having second thoughts.

Mr Benson-Pope, who as associate justice minister is in charge of the bill, said the numbers had firmed up because people realised it was a human rights issue, and about respecting the life choices of others.

"I think we're going to see a mark of around 65, 68, 70, somewhere around that," he told reporters.

The bill gives legal recognition to same-sex and heterosexual relationships. It does not change the Marriage Act, which remains solely for men and women.

Supporters say it will give equal rights to same-sex couples, offer an alternative to marriage for heterosexual partners, and end discrimination.

Opponents claim it amounts to an immoral "gay marriage" law which devalues the traditional relationship between men and women.

MPs have a conscience vote on the bill and one MP who did not vote on the first reading, Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia, says she will oppose it.

Mrs Turia had resigned from Parliament and was preparing for a by-election when the first reading vote was taken.

Another MP who did not vote, Labour's Janet Mackey, is going to support the bill. She was out of the country in June.

Two MPs who backed it on the first reading, ACT's Gerry Eckhoff and National's Lockwood Smith, said yesterday they were still making up their minds.

ACT MP Stephen Franks also supported the bill on its first reading and now says he will not agree to it going any further because he believes a companion bill, the Relationships (Statutory References) Bill, is flawed.

Dr Brash has changed his position after earlier supporting the bill.

He said he would personally vote in favour of allowing same-sex couples to form a legally binding relationship if a referendum was held.

But he would not vote to support the Government's attempt to "ram" the bill through Parliament in the face of serious misgivings by hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders and before the final shape of the companion bill was known.

Mr Choudhary said he would support the bill, after previously abstaining from voting on it.

"If the law allows one minority group in our society to be discriminated against then all minorities are vulnerable."

Youth wings of ACT, the Greens, Labour, National and the Progessive Party were today to hold a press conference in support of the bill.

If the bill is passed, it will come into force on April 26 next year.

- NZPA