I tuned in to Parliament TV last night and caught some of the final debate on New Zealand's same-sex marriage legislation. Parliament helpfully uploads everything to YouTube; here are some highlights. But if you like, just skip to the waiata at the end.
First, here's Labour's Louisa Wall, whose private member's bill led to all this:
National's Maurice Williamson's speech was rather nice; he noted the big gay rainbow in the sky over his rain-sodden electorate that morning could have been a sign.
John Banks, ACT's MP, made the case for marriage equality based on fundamental rights. Banks is personally pretty conservative but has come a long way. Nice job.
National's Nikki Kaye did a great job too.
Green MP Kevin Hague talked about the importance of the bill to his community.
Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell provided examples from Maori history of gays holding positions of prestige in their communities and argues that it was British colonial abolition of Maori customary marriage that broke that tradition; I really don't know enough about the history here.
After the vote, 77-44, Parliament broke into song, led by the Gallery. I'm told this is pretty rare. Here's the history of Pokarekare Ana, a New Zealand love song.
I'm not usually a fan of waiata. But this was very nice indeed.
