Former Auckland mayor Christine Fletcher says the signs of current mayor Dick Hubbard's moral conservatism were all there prior to the election, but no-one wanted to dig deep enough to find them. Hubbard has outraged and angered the Auckland gay community with suggestions on the eve of the Civil Unions vote that gay and lesbian parents are more likely to abuse or murder their children. "I am surprised that people are so shocked by this,” a resigned Fletcher told GayNZ.com. “If people had done their research, they would have realised that Hubbard's position on many issues was identical to [encumbant mayor] John Banks, including human rights.” Fletcher says the community and the media seemed blinded by their desperation to get rid of Banks, and with Hubbard's real stance on these issues beginning to emerge, the left-wing City Vision's endorsement for Hubbard as mayor prior to the election needs to be called into question. “I said at the time of the GABA debate that Hubbard's quoting of Richard Florida was taken from my speech to the GABA forum three years previously,” she says. “He told people what they wanted to hear."
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Friday, 10th December 2004 - 12:00pm