Brown Peter: Civil Union Bill — First Reading 
Brown Peter: Civil Union Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:618;Page:13932] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 That was one of the best speeches I have heard the former Minister make but she has got it all wrong. She made a good speech but the facts were wrong. I suggest to the House and to the former Minister that when MPs voted some 11 years ago for the human rights legislation that she referred to not many of them thought that in a very short space of time we would be trying to legalise a de facto type of marriage by passing a Civil Union Bill. I do not think that would have been at the back of their minds at all. By passing this bill we will be one step closer to allowing gay people—gay males in particular—to adopt children. I cannot go along with that at all. That is experimenting with children to the worst degree.[ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I will only ever warn a person in the gallery once. Anyone who makes a noise who is not a member of Parliament will be leaving this gallery immediately. This is a serious debate and the gallery as part of the democratic process is allowed to participate in listening. The only people who participate in the debate are those who are speaking and members of Parliament. 
PETER BROWN 
: This is a very contentious issue. I do not think I have had more correspondence on any other issue. The vast majority of the correspondence the email and faxes that have come to my office tell me that I should not support this bill. New Zealanders out there are worried about the effects of this bill. They see it as undermining marriage and that is a concern that I have. We here in this Parliament represent people. We are not dictators to tell them what they should have and what they should not have. If the Government is so determined to pass this legislation then why will it not put it to public referendum? Why will the Government not ask New Zealanders what they want? Why does the Government just want to impose another set of values on ordinary New Zealanders out there who I would suggest in the main do not want anything to do with this? By a public referendum I mean something similar to that conducted when the New Zealand First - National coalition Government wanted superannuation. We had a campaign to educate people what it was all about; we then asked them: “What do you think?”. We know the answer there and I would say the answer on this issue would be about the same level percentage—that is 90-odd percent no. New Zealanders are not ready for this. If they have to be ready for it eventually they are not ready for it now. 
Marriages and families are exceedingly important to this society. It disappoints me and my colleagues in New Zealand First that the definition of a family in the Families Commission Act is so liberalised. To my mind this is a flow-on effect from that type of liberalisation. By and large New Zealanders are conservative. They are fair-minded and conservative and they do not buy into this sort of legislation. Almost without exception every average New Zealander I have spoken to on this legislation has said: “Please vote against it. Please honour my wishes. Please recognise that you are here to represent me not to impose what you personally feel in terms of this type of contentious legislation. Please do your job properly.” 
I say to this House that if there were to be a referendum at the end of this and if New Zealanders had the final say then I think there are MPs in this House who would think differently about our opposition. If we knew that New Zealanders were to have a say in the final process we might be a little bit accommodating in supporting such legislation. But we were given a firm no. I put a question to the Minister only this afternoon and he admitted that this was a contentious issue but he said the process would be decided by select committee. That is not good enough on this sort of thing. This is not good enough at all. If we really wanted to improve things in this country we would be educating parents because parenting is becoming an increasingly challenging task in this day and age. We would be providing assistance to parents and giving them some guidance in bringing up children. 
Children are the future of this country. Young people represent what this country will be in years to come. We should be putting maximum emphasis on educating parents so they can bring up their children in a safe and fair manner. This sort of Civil Union Bill should be thrown where it belongs on the scrap heap.