Carter Chris: Civil Union Bill — Procedure Third Reading 
Carter Chris: Civil Union Bill — Procedure Third Reading 
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Hon CHRIS CARTER (Minister of Conservation) 
: 
 I rise to support the Civil Union Bill and I do so with a tremendous sense of joy optimism and an understanding that tonight we are making history. I would also like to acknowledge the presence in the House at the moment of the Hon Fran Wilde the former member for Wellington Central who oversaw the passage of the Homosexual Law Reform Bill almost 20 years ago. It must be a strange sense of déjà vu for that former member to listen to the same tired old arguments against this bill as she was subjected to all those years ago. 
I am confident that this bill will pass in the vote that will follow soon after my speech. Tomorrow all New Zealanders will wake up in a country that has enhanced its reputation as a society that respects human rights and cares about all its people. Tomorrow all New Zealanders will wake up with a new freedom and we will not have taken anything from anyone. For the first time every citizen in this nation will be able to formalise with the State his or her long-term relationship. For the majority they will have a choice between a marriage and a civil union. For the nation’s same-sex couples we will have an opportunity that we have always been denied. For my partner Peter and I the ability to register our relationship will come almost 32 years after we met. 
I have attended many weddings in my life. I have stood beside good friends as they marry. I look forward to the chance to extend a similar invitation to commemorate my partnership. In the months and years following today I expect that tens of thousands of loving stable couples—both homosexual and heterosexual—will participate in civil union ceremonies all over New Zealand. In doing so they will celebrate with their friends and their families gay and straight everything that makes us human in the same way that other couples do when they get married. 
 I would like to take this opportunity to say congratulations to those who will take up a civil union because the more couples who are encouraged into loving committed long-term relationships the stronger our society and our families will be. Sadly in other people’s happiness some see disaster or worse still a chance to display their own innate prejudice. This bill appears to have stirred some churches and MPs more markedly than entrenched social problems such as poverty child abuse youth suicide or the trafficking of drugs ever have. When did an MP ever fast to ask God to ensure that the poorest of our children had food in their mouths or were free from the scourge of child abuse? Never! But we have one here today fasting to stop the Civil Union Bill a piece of legislation without any victims—talk about a distorted sense of social justice! 
I do not understand those priorities but I like all gay and lesbian people everywhere am painfully aware that for some people prejudice about homosexuality still runs deep. A famous author and clergyman once said: “Bigotry warps the soul by shutting out the truth.” and the truth is that gays and lesbians are flesh and blood. We have always been part of New Zealand society. Indeed all cultures throughout history have recorded the presence of gay and lesbian people. We are mothers and fathers brothers and sisters and friends. We are ordinary and we are flawed. We have emotions likes and dislikes. We are nurses lawyers policemen artists singers farmers and even—occasionally—politicians. We are obvious but we are also invisible. 
We are people and we deserve to be treated like all other people. A gay doctor saves a life just like a straight one. A gay soldier dies for his or her country just like a straight one and a gay person falls in love just like a straight one. 
Last month I received an email from a gay officer in the armed forces. I thought I would quote a short section of that email. He wrote: “I am not a political man; I am one of your warriors. I believe in common sense guided by a sense of duty and polished with sound judgment. The many emotions surrounding the Civil Union Bill homosexuality and sexuality in general are all valid but they are not based on these factors. I would ask you to put aside your emotions for this vote and consider the real people who will be affected by this bill. I am an ordinary considerate and sensible New Zealander. I am not a family-breaker I am not abominable and when I attested for service in the armed services I did so on a Bible.” 
This bill recognises the essential decency of that young officer and of many others like him. But it recognises something even more important. It recognises that New Zealand has a proud legal history of tolerance that has made us a great nation and we will grow greater if we continue this tradition. Do we as a society judge people for what they are or do we as a society judge people for who they are? Do we ignore the quality of people’s actions their contribution and their compassion? Do we look first at their sexuality the colour of their skin or their gender? Is that what we should be teaching our children? We do not but unfortunately for a long time now the law surrounding relationships has done just that. It is time it was changed. Our society has reached that point. Polls show that a majority support this bill which comes as no surprise to me. 
I am an openly gay Cabinet Minister. I travel the length and breadth of this country and people greet me warmly knowing who I am. That is the New Zealand way; that is what our people do; in that the law belongs to the people. This bill needs to pass. It is part of the progress of this country as a modern liberal tolerant nation. 
The previous speaker said that this legislation was out of sync with what was happening in the rest of the world but last week the British House of Commons passed its civil union bill. Do we want to be a country like Britain—a modern liberal social democracy—or do we want to become a country like George Bush’s United States of America? I know where I would rather live. I would rather live in a tolerant liberal democracy—and that is what this bill is about. I commend it and urge all members of this House to support it.