Maryan Street Lesbian Labour MP Maryan Street is standing by Shane Taurima, describing him as "a great person" who had a good chance of winning the Tamaki Makaurau seat later this year if he had been allowed to stand. Taurima, an openly gay journalist and TV administrator, was late last night denied a waiver needed to stand for Labour due to his not having been a party member for the required full year before before the candidate selection process commenced. Taurima had once before tried to stand for Labour and returned to broadcasting after he was not selected. His employer, TVNZ, later cast doubts on whether he had appropriately advised them of his joining the Labour party for the organisation and a report released yesterday noted that while he had improperly used TVNZ facilities for political meetings and emailing his lack of bias in political broadcasting was not doubted. "I am very pleased that the TVNZ report [into whether he had let his political affiliation affect his journalistic neutrality] absolutely exhonerated him, I never doubted him," Street said. Of the waiver being declined, ruling Taurima out of contention for the forthcoming general election, "I'm very sad about it," Street said this morning. "I think he is a great person and he certainly has a future with the Labour party." She said the decision was clearly based on what she and others are calling Taurima's "lapse of judgement." Of TVNZ's new requirement that some staff in sensitive positions will not now be allowed to belong to any political mparties, Street says she's not sure the broadcaster has got it right. "In a sense it's a direct infringement of civil liberties," she believes.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 13th May 2014 - 2:56pm