Former United Future New Zealand List MP Gordon Copeland has walked out of his caucus at protest over his former leader, Peter Dunne, who voted for Sue Bradford's anti-belting bill. Why should he be allowed to stay in Parliament? Consistently, Copeland has probably been one of this parliamentary term's leading social conservative extremists. He opposed prostitution law reform, opposed civil unions, supported a same-sex marriage ban, opposed the aforementioned anti-belting bill, wants women to be forced to watch anti-abortion propaganda before they're 'allowed' to terminate their pregnancies, and so on. He has supported fringe Christian Right organisations like the Society for Promotion of Community Standards and Right to Life New Zealand. Copeland was only just elected as a United Future List MP on the basis of his party voter share, as it was. If the Electoral Integrity Act, which prevented opportunist List MPs from forming joke microparties if they abandoned their former parties, was still in place, he would not have been allowed to do this. He should not be allowed to do so now. One hopes that there will now be reconsideration of the Electoral Integrity Act, and that Copeland will not be allowed to represent a fundamentalist microparty that was never elected to Parliament in its own right. I feel sorry for Peter Dunne. He should not have to pay for doing the right thing, in defiance of his former fundamentalist party colleagues, and in light of his own conscience. " Future New Zealand" should be stillborn, throttled in its cradle before it can see the light of day. Craig Young - 17th May 2007