Mackey Moana: Relationships (Statutory References) Bill — Second Reading 
Mackey Moana: Relationships (Statutory References) Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:624;Page:18984] 
MOANA MACKEY (Labour) 
: 
 I rise to support the Relationships (Statutory References) Bill and I shall make some comments about some of the speeches that came before mine. I find it ironic that the Hon Dr Nick Smith gave us one of his tirades about adding de facto relationships to statutes in this House when he was part of the National Government in the 1990s that added de facto relationships to no less than 20 pieces of legislation. But I guess in Opposition as per usual the National Party says one thing then gets into Government and does something different. 
When we speak about adding de facto relationships to our laws it is always a difficult topic. When we are considering the demographic shift that we have seen towards more New Zealanders entering into de facto relationships I believe that we need to get away from the rhetoric and look at what the evidence really says. New Zealanders deserve law that is based on reality not just on frothy-mouthed rhetoric which is what we have been seeing in this House. 
Many de facto relationships are very stable. They involve children. There are members of this House who have been in de facto relationships for longer than some members in this House have been married. I apologise to all the families out there who are raising children doing a wonderful job who are not married who are in de facto relationships or may be in homosexual relationships who have been insulted time and time again in this House by people who think that somehow just when a person gets married a switch flicks on inside that makes that person a good citizen and a good parent with good financial status and a good educator of children when we know that that is not a fact. 
Marriage does produce very good outcomes for children more so than de facto relationships not because marriage makes good parents but because more good parents choose to get married. If more good parents choose not to get married then the demographics that come out of de facto relationships will also improve. 
I agree with the Hon Dr Nick Smith that all relationships are not equal. But that does not mean that all marriages are good and all de facto relationships are bad that all heterosexual relationships are good and all homosexual relationships are bad. What it means is that it depends on the individuals in those relationships. 
One thing that we hear time and time again is about the transient nature of de facto relationships. Certainly for some that is true just as for marriage. For example a large number of my friends got married for the student allowance when they were at university. Marriage is not immune to those kinds of transient relationships that really are not based on love at all. A study that was done in New Zealand showed that a conservative figure of 70 percent of New Zealanders who marry now cohabit in a de facto relationship before they marry. With an average of 20000 or 21000 marriages per year that means that 15000 de facto relationships end every year. They do not end because the relationship is unstable or because the couple do not want to be together any more. They end because the couple got married. 
That is quite a different point of view from the one put up by people who say that de facto relationships last on average only 4 years. That is not surprising when one considers the incredibly large number of de facto relationships that end every year because that couple choose to get married. 
This bill is about supporting families—but all families not just families who choose to get married. It is about supporting the children in those relationships and giving them certainty. I ask members who stand up here and say that this is destructive to families what they would say to the children of parents who have chosen not to get married. Do those children deserve to have less certainty in their lives because of a choice their parent made? No they do not and that is what this bill is about. It is about recognising that there are changes in this country in relationships children are in those relationships and all children in this country deserve to have the full protection of the law not just those whose parents just happen to be married.