Catchpole Brent: Civil Union Bill — In Committee Procedure 
Catchpole Brent: Civil Union Bill — In Committee Procedure 
[Volume:622;Page:17593] 
BRENT CATCHPOLE (NZ First) 
: 
 I have listened to this debate for many hours now and I have heard arguments from both sides of the Chamber. Much of it has been very emotional and some of it has been very personal but really what have we been listening to? We have heard one side stating that they want equality for people yet they turn round and promote the complete opposite. On the other side of the argument people are concerned that civil union will wreck marriage and then we hear them stating that it is not about marriage. But this bill is all about and is nothing more than marriage for gays. 
Let us look at what the promoters of this bill are trying to say. They are trying to promote that it will reduce the prejudice against them and provide them with all sorts of other legal and technical issues. None of that will change. This bill will not change any of those things. People will not find that prejudice suddenly melts away overnight. It will not happen under this bill at all. They will not have any additional rights to adopt children. Those rights already exist. People in de facto relationships can adopt children through the normal adoption processes now so what is this bill really about? It is nothing more than marriage for gay people. 
It is such an emotional issue so why will this Government not allow the people of this country to decide such an emotional and important issue? New Zealand First has offered a binding referendum to decide this issue but this Government is frightened of that. Why is it frightened? What is it frightened of? Why does the Government not give the people the opportunity to show that they care and that they have minds of their own? This Government does not believe that the people of New Zealand have minds of their own. It wants to protect them from making this decision. Well the people of New Zealand want to make the decision themselves and a binding referendum is the way for them to do that. 
We have heard such emotional statements from both sides that it is obvious members of Parliament do not have the ability to be objective about this issue. They cannot make the decision for the majority of people. Most deny the polling that has been going on with regard to this issue. 
 Some will deny that there is a huge majority against the bill and some will claim that there is a huge majority for it. If that is the case then let us ask the people in a referendum to make their decision. There is no point in polling people between elections to see who will govern the country. It is the poll held at election time that really decides who will govern the country so let the people of New Zealand decide in a referendum at the next election whether gay marriage is to be the norm and whether this legislation is wanted by the majority of people. If it is allowed to go to the public and if they decide to go with it well and good. That would be the decision of the people not of the emotional members of this House. So it should be allowed to go to a referendum. 
Why is the Government so frightened of that? Why will it not allow the people to decide? Is it because the Government knows that the people have minds of their own and that they know how to make decisions on these sorts of things? We have heard the excuse that we should not allow the people to make decisions through referenda because they are not used to them. As the Rt Hon Winston Peters said the only way to learn how to swim is to get into the water. So why cannot the Government allow the people of New Zealand to use a referendum to make their own decisions—to decide what they want to have in place?