The Christian Heritage Party and United Future are calling on the government to amend the Marriage Act to defend it against gay couples. United Future's Larry Baldock will be attempting to introduce a private members bill that will define marriage as strictly between a man and a woman, in addition to amending the Human Rights Act 1993 to allow discrimination in favour of married couples. "I remain deeply concerned that the clauses in the Civil Union Bill allow for transfer between civil union and marriage that they will ultimately lead to a court determining that same-sex couples are entitled to marriage,” says Baldock. "It is therefore imperative that Parliament makes its intention clear by the amendments proposed in my Member's Bill.” Christian Heritage leader Ewen McQueen concurs. “Christian Heritage NZ will make one of its top priorities the introduction of an Affirming Marriage Act that will allow public policy to positively discriminate in favour of marriage as it has always been understood,” he says. “The Affirming Marriage Act will explicitly state that its provisions take precedence over the Human Rights Act so there will be no room for any doubt on the matter.” When asked by GayNZ.com what the government's position was on both propositions, Associate Justice Minister David Benson-Pope responded: “Yeah right!”
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Saturday, 11th December 2004 - 12:00pm