We have lost our way as a nation by giving equal rights to gay people, NZ First leader Winston Peters told a cheering crowd of pensioners in Napier on Tuesday. Peters said both National and Labour were focussing on dangerous social and economic policies that threatened the wellbeing of New Zealanders. "Legalising prostitution and equal rights for gay people is the day we have lost our way as a nation," he said. The incendiary statement signals a full about-turn to electioneering mode for Peters, and is in complete contrast to statements he made to the gay media last year about NZ First's commitment to equal treatment for all citizens, in the wake of the David McNee murder trial, in which McNee's killer was convicted only of manslaughter after invoking "homosexual panic". "One's political responsibility is pretty clear," he said. "I mean, I've never gone out and been anti or pro anybody in particular, other than to say I think that if you've got a society in which the rules are the same for everybody, then whatever people's different and varying circumstances are, they'll get the same treatment basically." Peters dismissal of equal rights for gay citizens also comes hard on the heels of his allegations against GayNZ.com contributor Jim Peron under parliamentary privilege last week, in which claimed he was a paedophile. Peters has refused to repeat the allegations outside Parliament, and has yet to produce any conclusive proof of his accusations.
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Thursday, 17th March 2005 - 12:00pm