The Prime Minister has been attacked at Question Time over her government's support for the GLBT communities. ACT's Deborah Coddington asked the Prime Minister if the Government's plan to spend $126,000 on a "rainbow desk" to liaise with the GLBT communities was "political correctness gone too far; if not, what is going too far?" "Of course, those people make up our community. Indeed, they may make up as many as 5 percent—some estimate 10 percent of the community—so one would expect their needs to be taken into account in policy making. I can name numerous instances of the new political incorrectness becoming political correctness," the PM replied. ACT's Heather Roy went on to ask whether a similar desk would be set up for the "red-blooded heterosexual males" that Labour MP John Tamihere declared his support for earlier in the week. "Presumably, as red-blooded heterosexual males make up about 95 percent of the population, one could consider their needs are probably already well catered for in policy," she answered. National's deputy leader Gerry Brownlee went on to taunt Tamihere over his sexuality, asking the Prime Minister, "When the Prime Minister gave the red hot-blooded heterosexual male John Tamihere permission to deliver his speech, what did she think he meant when he said: 'There are a number of attitudes prevalent in our society that are in fact highly dangerous to our well-being'?" "I am sure he would have been referring to the propensity of right-wing parties to tell people how to live their lives," was her answer. Coddington, Roy and Brownlee all voted against the Relationships Bill, which would provide next-of-kin rights for same-sex couples. Coddington and Brownlee also voted against the Civil Union bill.
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Thursday, 5th August 2004 - 12:00pm