McNair Craig: Civil Union Bill — In Committee Procedure 
McNair Craig: Civil Union Bill — In Committee Procedure 
[Volume:622;Page:17542] 
CRAIG McNAIR (NZ First) 
: 
 I appreciate being able to take a call on Part 2. I say to the Committee that this bill should be called the “We Don’t Care What You Think Because We Will Do What We Want and Push Through Our Liberal Leftie Agenda Bill” because that is what this Government is doing. We asked the members on the opposite side of the Chamber and the Green members why they did not support a referendum; why if they are really that confident that this bill will pass they would not support the referendum that New Zealand First has proposed. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: They don’t like democracy. 
CRAIG McNAIR 
: Labour does not like democracy. Labour is a party for the minority. It is not a party for the people. That is what New Zealand First is saying. Labour should stop being a party of the minority and start being a party of the people. All members of Parliament would like to think they are politicians for the people. Well this Government is not showing that. Ministers and members of Parliament who have stood up in the last couple of days to speak on this bill have gone about slagging the US Government and the people in 11 different states of the United States who have voted against civil union and gay marriage. Members have said that those people basically are intolerant and are bigots because they do not agree with their view. That is what this Government is saying. This is a poll-driven Government—we all know that. It has done the numbers. 
R Doug Woolerton 
: You are right. 
CRAIG McNAIR 
: The member says I am right. Everybody knows that this is a poll-driven Government and it has done the numbers. The Government knows that it would lose this. 
When I spoke to the Committee on Part 1 I brought up the scenario of the state of Oregon which is probably more like us as a country. It is a more liberal state. It is on the west coast—it is close to Hollywood and California—and it is not a Bible Belt state but even Oregon voted against this issue. We saw the TV3 poll last week. As the voting comes to the crunch people are starting to think about the whole issue and are asking themselves how this will affect our nation not in 10 20 or 30 years but in 50 or 100 years. They are asking what is best for this nation. At the end of the day the New Zealand voter will go into a polling booth and say that this will not be good for our nation in the future. That is what the Labour Government the Green Party and the Minister in the chair David Benson-Pope are afraid of. Those “Fui” posters are really true: they say that civil unions are not gay marriage—“Yeah Right”. We know that this is gay marriage. This bill is basically taken out of the Marriage Act. It is the same thing. People are just fooling themselves if they think this is not gay marriage. 
The reason I want to talk about a referendum and why we should let the people decide on this one is that many people out there have a lot of concerns. Those people would like to have their say. David and Christine Sloane wrote to me and said: “Dear Mr McNair we are very concerned about the current Civil Union Bill and the relationship bill before Parliament and we thank you for your continued opposition to these bills. We oppose these bills in their entirety and we hope you will receive support and encouragement from the views of the many thousands of people who made submissions that were strongly against the introduction of these bills. We believe that marriage needs to be protected and promoted in law because it offers unique benefits to children and society. These bills effectively say that marriage has no special value to New Zealand. It is a well-known fact that good marriage relationships are instrumental in developing stable family life for children to grow up in as well as being the foundation for communities and society to build upon. We believe the majority of New Zealanders do not want the Civil Union Bill or the relationships bill introduced and we urge you to use any influence you have in giving support with the aim of defeating these bills. New Zealanders from all walks of life are proud of their history their culture their values and the way we all contribute to society. We urge you not to be part of any process that devalues or waters down any of the foundations or principles we value. Please continue to vote against the introduction of the Civil Union Bill and the relationships bill.”