Sun 5 Feb 2017 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
The ex-boss of the police officers' union who has announced he wishes to be the Labour party candidate for the Ohariu seat at the forthcoming election was a significant player in the passing of human rights legislation benefiting gay people. Greg O'Connor Greg O'Connor was, in 1993, head of the Police Association at a time when the issue of equal rights in the law for glbti people were a stridently-debated topic as National MP Katherine O'Regan's Human Rights Amendment Bill was making its controversial way through Parliament. The bill also sought to create equal rights in areas such as employment and accommodation for other population groups such as those disabilities and on the basis of age but it was the glbti inclusion that was strongly objected to by homophobes and many religious groups. Then-Police Commissioner John Jamieson, a conservative Christian, spent much time in the lead-up to the Parliamentary vote speaking against the bill to the media and to many church groups. His boss, then-Minister of Police John Banks, was incessantly and stridently outspoken against the bill, saying having glbti police officers would undermine force morale and that the public would lose confidence in the force if there were "policemen in tutus." Both men's objections were fatally undermined when O'Connor told the news media that his association's members saw no problem with gay police officers on the beat so long as they could do the job effectively. That support, along with the Defence Force and the teachers' unions supporting the legislation, convinced many New Zealanders that glbti people should be considered equal to the heterosexual population and the Human Rights Amendment Bill soon passed into law. Sadly transgender people were not included in the 1993 bill, a fact that O'Regan has subsequently apologised for. Transgender people continue to battle inequalities which might not prevail had they been included. O'Connor has been tapped by Labour leader Andrew Little to stand in the seat but has yet to be formally selected. If chosen as the candidate for the seat he will be going up against the incumbent Ohariu MP, United Future's Peter Dunne, who has been a committed supporter of gay equality throughout his long parliamentary career.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Sunday, 5th February 2017 - 7:19pm