Luxon said Fleming had been “upfront with the party and the delegates that selected him as a candidate”.
“They are not positions that I hold,” Luxon said.
Luxon said he was not given prior warning of the comments, despite them representing an obvious political risk.
“The conversation with Greg had happened with the party and with the delegates. They were aware of that,” Luxon said.
“We have a standard vetting process that we do for all candidates.
“One of the things that we do in the vetting process: The candidates either raises those issues they bring forward to the party and to the delegates and then we actually make sure that people can make the decision based off that.”
Civil unions were passed by the Fifth Labour Government and gave people the option of legal recognition of a relationship, giving couples the rights of marriage without actually getting married. Same sex couples were not allowed to marry at the time and civil unions were seen as a way of affording the legal and social aspects of marriage to those couples. Same-sex marriage was not legislated until 2013.
Luxon said he believed Fleming had also been through the National 101 programme recently established for people who are considering candidacy. The programme was designed to encourage non-typical candidates to come forward.
Fleming said he “wouldn’t make them [the comments] again” and said they “weren’t helpful”.
He said he now supported civil unions.
“Twenty years on, I very much support civil unions. My comments two decades ago were trying to make a point about contractual law but weren’t helpful and I wouldn’t make them again.
“Our marriage laws are now well and truly settled and I support leaving them as they are,” he said.
Labour holds Maungakiekie, a central Auckland electorate that includes the suburbs of Onehunga and One Tree Hill among others, by a razor-thin majority of 635, meaning National is likely to take it at the 2023 election given the scale of the nationwide swing against Labour.
Luxon does have the option of distancing himself from the remarks by exerting pressure on the list ranking process to dump Fleming down the list, a signal he is unhappy with the candidate.
Luxon said he would be able to work with Fleming in his caucus.
“We have a national National Party that represents a range of views. It’s not a monolithic party,” Luxon said.