Thu 20 Aug 2009 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
UPDATE 2.00PM: Shortly after midday today this story was posted the Parliamentary ballot of Private Members' Bills did not produce the Greens' adoption amendment bill. 1.00AM: Greens MP Kevin Hague is crossing his fingers that a Private Member's Bill he has assumed responsibility for comes out of the Parliamentary ballot today, to address the issue of adoption by glbt couples. Hard on the heels of yesterday's call by the acting principal judge of the Family Court for same sex and de-facto couples to be able to adopt children, Hague has advised that a Bill seeking to amend the Adoption Act 1955 is currently in the ballot. Under the elderly but still current 1955 law, single people, including ironically gays and lesbians, can adopt, but same-sex or unmarried couples cannot. The Bill was originally sponsored by Green MP Metiria Turei and had languished in the ballot box for two years before then-Prime Minister Helen Clark announced in July last year, just months before the general election, that it had been removed. Clark said at the time that adoption by gay couples was "a tough issue to tackle, which we must get to at some point." However, a spokesperson for Turei soon contradicted Clark, saying the Bill was still in the ballot and Turei and the Greens were still committed to it. With Turei rising to become Green party co-leader, the Bill is now under gay MP Hague's name, "and I have it in the ballot currently." Hague says there will be a draw tomorrow, "probably of three or four Member's Bills to be debated... and it would be great timing if mine was one of them." Hague says Green party policy is for total equality under the law, "and the Family Court Judge's comments yesterday probably make my Bill particularly timely as the next step in this process."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 20th August 2009 - 1:10am