Green MP Metiria Turei has submitted a private member's bill to Parliament to legalise adoption by same-sex couples, reports the New Zealand Herald. Currently single gays and lesbians can adopt but same-sex or unmarried couples cannot. "It's just prejudice, and there's no reason for it," said Turei. The bill, which would give civil union and de facto couples the same rights to adopt children as married couples, must first be drawn from the Parliamentary ballot, to be considered. Currently there are 30 private member's bills in the ballot. A spokesperson for Justice Minister Mark Burton told the New Zealand Herald he is "not unsympathetic" to the bill's purpose and he would consider the bill's merits, should it be drawn from the ballot. Brendan Malone of the Catholic group Family First has slammed the bill, saying same-sex couples are a "second-rate alternative" to heterosexual parents. "It seems crazy that we would promote something in law that is of no benefit to children and has been shown by research to be detrimental to them." The Law Commission disagreed in a 2000 report, saying there was no evidence that showed it was against a child's best interests to be raised by parents of the same sex. There were 3600 adoptions in 1972, plummeting to only 300 per year now. Ref: NZ Herald (d)