Colin Craig As we reported earlier this week, the Conservative Party and its not so keen on gay people leader Colin Craig is cosying up to National. Prime Minister John Key has confirmed the Conservative Party is a potential support partner for a centre-right government, while National Party President Peter Goodfellow has reportedly sought a meeting with Conservative leader Colin Craig. It comes as John Banks, ACT’s leader and sole MP, is under police investigation over donations to his failed 2010 Auckland mayoralty campaign. If Banks was convicted of breaking local electoral laws he would have to step down, forcing a by-election in Epsom. The Conservatives leader has made it clear he would run in a by-election in Epsom. A fundamentalist Christian, Craig has made it clear he personally “doesn’t approve of homosexuality,” and is also personally against gay adoption, but has been adamant such views will not come into Conservative Party policy. Yet should be we worried? We asked two of our gay MPs, (who are granted from the other side of the political spectrum where most of our gay MPs are) to weigh in. Kevin Hague, gay Green MP “Well, I think there's a fair bit of water to flow under the bridge before we can safely conclude that ACT is toast, but assuming that they are, then the Conservative Party has a reasonable chance of filling the space at the far right of the NZ political spectrum. My sense is that it's pretty inevitable that there will be a party in that space, so if it isn't them, it will be someone else. “ACT has tended to lurch between pointy-headed Ayn Randism and opportunism, with a resultant incoherent mix of policies and actions. By contrast the Conservatives seem to be primarily focused on social policy populism, targeting conservative church-goers. There's no doubt that we find many of their policy positions objectionable, but even they seem to have accepted many of our advances, so they aren't seeking to recriminalise sex between men, and seem to accept civil unions, for example. “More important, while we now have many elections that illustrate that there is a constituency for a religious right party (eg Christian Coalition, Future NZ) it seems to be too small a constituency to get over the threshold. Where it might make a difference is where National artificially props up such a party (a la Epsom) in order to have a coalition partner, which is the only way ACT has been in the House at all in recent years. So it is conceivable that they could get into Parliament but their policy differences with National on economic issues are quite large, so National may be disinclined to breathe life into this particular party, and in any case the Banks embarrassment may have turned Epsom voters off this tactic. “And in any case, at the end of the day they probably aren't more conservative than some people already in National, who already get conscience votes on our issues anyway. So my sense is that I'd rather not have them in Parliament, but I'm not super-alarmed. let's remember too that despite massive spending they didn't get far, thereby demonstrating their limited appeal, and their organisation was so poor that they didn't manage to get their compulsory financial return on election spending lodged (prosecution coming up I expect).” Charles Chauvel, gay Labour MP “My experience as a candidate at the 2011 election led me to observe that the Conservative Party's candidates take great pains to pretend that they are not drawn almost exclusively from a fundamentalist, or at least very old-fashioned, christian background. “Despite this being a breach of the 9th commandment - Thou Shalt Not Lie - it is typical of the stealth activism we see from this corner of politics. After all, telling the truth about their desire to take NZ back in moral terms some 50 years would simply make them unelectable. “The problem is this - if, God forbid, the Conservative Party ever makes it into Parliament, they'll probably never have very many MPs. But you can be sure that - however many of them end up there - they will all just 'happen' to share their leader's 'disapproval' of homosexuality. This will be bad enough when they vote against socially-progressive bills. It will be worse when you think about the issues over which they will seek to bargain in exchange for giving National support on confidence and supply. “I predict that the resurrection by National of the Conservative Party as the ACT Party replacement will take place as soon as Key and English get the budget through and jettison the embarrassment that John Banks has become to them. “This is how the National Party plans to use MMP to 'outsource' its old homophobic wing, which used to include Graeme Lee and all those other horrors. They and their ilk simply resurface in new parties that spare the Nats the need to have masses of their own moral conservatives, while still allowing them to rely on their votes. “Clever, really. Let's hope not too many from our community fall for it by voting for John Key again.” GayNZ.com Daily News staff - 8th May 2012
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 8th May 2012 - 4:47pm