Marriage bill set for defeat

A move to amend the Marriage Act, to clarify that marriage is only for men and women, looks set for defeat today.

United Future MP Gordon Copeland said yesterday that he thought his member's bill, which gets a first reading in Parliament today, did not have the numbers.

The Marriage (Gender Clarification) Amendment Bill clarifies the Marriage Act 1955 by making it clear marriage is exclusively between one man and one woman.

Mr Copeland said United Future's three MPs and Act's two MPs were going to support it, but National, Labour and NZ First were treating it as a conscience issue.

Questioned in Parliament yesterday, Justice Minister Mark Burton said that the Court of Appeal held in a case in 1998 that the Marriage Act applied only to marriage between a man and a woman.

"To vote in favour of the bill, in my view, would constitute a poor process and a complete waste of Parliament's time."