Gay marriage bill drawn from ballot | Television New Zealand | News, Sport, Weather, TV ONE, TV2 | TVNZ | POLITICS News This is great - all three major parties in parliament have stated that they are supportive of marriage equality, including the prime minister (even though he only changed his mind on this recently). The leading party was not going to bring it forward themselves as they had "other priorites," however the prime minister said that he would support it if it was drawn from the ballot, which it was about 20 minutes ago. So hopefully we should be getting marriage equality here shortly!
It will be a conscience vote, however it should hopefully pass reasonably easily. It would need at least 61 out of 120 in favour: 100% of the 14 Green party members in favour ~70% of the 34 Labour party members in favour (24) ~50% of the 59 National party members in favour (29) which puts my estimate at 67 when looking at the major parties. I'm not sure how the minor parties will go, but it shouldn't matter anyway.
I'm at a loss at your politics works over there, but man I'm excited for you all. Sounds like this is the year for you guys
THE NUMBERS - New Zealand | Marriage Equality So unless something goes monumentally wrong, it's going to pass its first reading at least.
A beacon of hope in Oceania. This news and Vietnam considering legalizing gay marriage makes me soo happy. Its a significant step to reducing prejudice and homophobia !
NECROMANCY First reading results from a few seconds ago! Total voters: 118 Yes: 78(66.1%) No: 40(33.9%) Woop! Who knows what happened to the other two voters of the 120!
So did I! Twitter got very disgruntled when the green screen came up for 5 minutes with the elevator music... it was great. UNLOCK THE DOORS
Mine buffered right before the nos were read but I figured by the cheers it was good news. 2 votes to go!
Updated First reading results! Total voters: 120 Yes: 80(66.66%) No: 40(33.33%) The two absentees somehow weren't counted, but they voted yes as well!
50.8% of National (dominant right wing and in power party) voted for. 88.2% of Labour (dominant left wing party) voted for.
Well my National and Green estimates from a month ago were accurate! Glad that Labour exceeded my expectations.
Woot! For anyone lost about the whole thing, here is a simple explanation of how the process goes. New Zealand approves first of three votes to legalize same-sex marriage – LGBTQ Nation And I'm sure one of you guys can correct us if the article is wrong