The Marriage Equality Bill has passed through its select committee stage, and by a considerable margin.
I am pleased to see that most MPs aren’t listening to the bigoted views of a few rowdies armed with out of date facts, figures and dodgy polls.
A Parliamentary Select Committee has recommended that a bill to legalise same-sex marriage be passed into law.
The Government Administration Committee said the private member’s bill should progress, but with an amendment to make it clear that no minister was obliged to marry someone against their own beliefs.
The committee report said: “The bill seeks to extend the legal right to marry to same-sex couples; it does not seek to interfere with people’s religious freedoms.”
Sensible stuff.
The committee received 21,533 submissions on the bill, 2898 of which had unique content. Of the submissions, 10,487 were in favour and 8148 against. The committee acknowledged that New Zealanders held “sincere and strong beliefs” about the importance of marriage. “The passion with which submitters made their arguments to us was palpable.”
This is where mass submissions get silly…most are simply copies of a form submission and therefore largely meaningless.
The bill’s second reading will be held on March 13. The legislation passed its first reading by 80 votes to 40.
A considerable margin.
