Critics are labelling New Zealand's civil union legislation a "waste of time" while supporters are pleased, in the wake of new figures just released by the Department of Internal Affairs, which show 458 civil unions have taken place in the year since the law was introduced. The Campaign for Civil Unions says that the uptake of civil unions in New Zealand is higher, at 115 per million people, than other countries, in the first year since the legislation passed. We are well ahead of Denmark (84), Sweden (37), Norway (35), but behind the Netherlands where uptake was 191 per million for the first year. The campaign's spokesperson Michael Wallmannsberger expects the numbers to grow. "It's quite obvious that registering a Civil Union isn't a decision you make overnight. It may take a number of years to fully assess the popularity of Civil Unions as a form of relationship recognition," Wallmannsberger said. "Justice isn't a popularity contest. The ability of each of the 460 couples who have registered a Civil Union to secure legal recognition is of far greater personal significance to them than it is to the law's opponents," he said. Tim Barnett, the MP initially charged with driving the legislation, is planning his own civil union for later this year. "I don't think I ever thought it was going to be a numbers game," he said. "Although our opponents put figures on it, we saw it simply as giving same-sex relationships a legal standing, and it has. Civil unions have become part of the wallpaper of the nation." National MP Bill English, a vocal critic of the legislation, believes the figures are low. "I'm not surprised. It was much more about symbolism than reality. There was only ever a small number of people that wanted that recognition for their relationship." "I don't think there was ever an overwhelming demand for it and it was much more political symbolism for gay activists than anything else." The Family First Lobby takes the same line as English. "Civil Unions represent 2% of total marriages / civil unions! Quite obviously, there never was and is still no significant demand for this legislation," says the lobby's national director Bob McCroskie. Of the 458 unions since the law was passed, 199 were female-female unions, 178 were male-male unions and 81 were heterosexual unions. Only one civil union has been dissolved, and the couple went on to marry. Two couples have swapped their marriage for a civil union. In the same time period there were around 20,000 marriages. The Campaign for Civil Unions emphasises that the Civil Union Act automatically improved the legal recognition of around 300,000 de facto relationships. The Campaign supports further work on the provision of a national next of kin register.
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Wednesday, 26th April 2006 - 12:00pm