MEMBER’S BILL PROPOSES TO RECOGNIZE SAME-SEX MARRIAGES IN NEW ZEALAND
Voting on alcohol reform
On 30 August 2012 the House went into committee on Part 2 of the Alcohol Reform Bill for an in-principle debate on the issue of the age for sale and purchase of alcohol from licensed premises. In an unusual procedure,
the issue would be decided by a conscience vote in an election with three options: 18 years, 20 years, or a split age of 18 for purchase of alcohol for consumption on licensed premises and 20 for purchase of alcohol from off-licences. If the election did not result in
a clear majority, the least favoured option would be eliminated and
THIRD READING: NEW ZEALAND
Mr Michael Woodhouse, MP
going to vote on the age, when there are much more important issues that the media should actually be asking individual Members of Parliament about”. Mr Michael Woodhouse, MP,
Hon. Lianne Dalziel, MP
a further vote held on the two remaining options. Hon. Lianne Dalziel, MP,
(Labour) strongly objected to having Part 2 “carved out for a conscience vote, because it makes it look like age is the only problem we have with alcohol in this country. The media [are] very much focusing on how MPs are
(National) intervened that “it is not the government’s prerogative to decide what is and is not a conscience vote. That will be for the Speaker to decide”. Ms Dalziel said that if the Committee of the Whole House did not support her choice of the split age option, she wanted to keep the age at 18 years because she believed that “it is fundamental that the public of New Zealand does not think for one minute that we have dealt with the really hard issues”. Mr Hone Harawira, MP,
(Mana) considered one of these issues to be the advertising of alcohol, which he compared with tobacco. In terms of tobacco packaging
and display, he said: “We wanted to try to reduce tobacco’s impact on young people. Well, no moves are being made against alcopops
National War Memorial Park (Pukeahu) The National War Memorial Park (Pukeahu) Empowering Bill had its third reading on 7 September, two weeks after its introduction. The Bill grants the necessary statutory authorizations and property rights to enable completion of the National War Memorial Park (Pukeahu) in Wellington by April 2015, to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing in Turkey during World War I. The Gallipoli campaign is of special significance to both Australia and New Zealand, and 25 April, known as Anzac Day, is commemorated in both countries as their day of national remembrance. The Bill was introduced by
the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, Hon. Christopher Finlayson, MP, who said that the Bill will enable the completion of “what will be New Zealand’s major legacy project for the First World War commemorations: this wonderful park, Pukeahu. It is the centrepiece of the Government’s programme of projects and activities to mark the centenary over the 2014-18 period”. Minister Finlayson said “it is important to recognize that this has been a developing project, but with this development we will be able to say that we finally have a complete memorial to those who have served this country so well”. The project will involve relocating state highway 1
so that Pukeahu would become “a place of quiet reflection”. Deputy Leader of the Labour
Party, Mr Grant Robertson, MP, agreed that the park “should be a place where people can go to think about the overall impact of war”. He noted that “the year 2015 will be a very important time for New Zealanders in terms of our sense of identity and looking back over our history as a country. This is a great legacy project for that time”. However, he said that “it would have been better if we could have gone through the correct legislative process, regulatory processes, and consenting processes that would be required for that, but time is against us”. Mr Gareth Hughes, MP, (Green)
stated that although the Green Party supported the establishment of the park, the party would be voting against the Bill “because of process issues, because we are going through this extraordinary step of passing legislation to get a park”. Mr Andrew Williams, MP, (New Zealand First) said: “It is understandable that the process has been pressure-cooked and steamrolled somewhat to get this done…but we cannot miss 2015 for the Gallipoli commemorations. There should be full cross-party support to ensure that we get this completed.” The Bill passed by 104 votes
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