Gordon Copeland A former MP who is now the President of political minnow the Kiwi Party says the Government's income splitting tax credits legislation should be restricted to heterosexual married couples. Gordon Copeland's made a submission on legislation currently before select committee hearings that would allow couples to split their income for tax purposes allowing them to pay less tax. Newstalk ZB reports he said it should be limited to married couples only because it takes a man and a woman to raise children. He reportedly said the tax splitting needs to have material evidence and that's best done via a marriage certificate. Copeland is a former United Future MP who ditched the party in 2007 over leader Peter Dunne's support of the so-called "anti-smacking" legislation. After a failed attempt to create a political party with the Destiny Church's political wing, he eventually helped form the Kiwi Party in 2008. He stood in the Rongotai electorate, where he received just 515 votes, while the Kiwi Party did not cross the five per cent threshold to enter Parliament. Copeland is socially conservative and is strongly opposed to same-sex marriage and civil unions. In 2005 he introduced his colleague Larry Baldock's Marriage Amendment (Gender Clarification) Bill, which failed to win support. The bill sought to define marriage in New Zealand as heterosexual.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 11th February 2011 - 1:20pm