Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Coming up in 2005
Scarcely a couple of weeks into the new year, and already I feel like I'm suffering from information overload. This year could be a long haul.
So what's ahead of us for 2005? The government or its various agencies have flagged a number of things you can expect to see.
1) Passage of the companion Bill to the Civil Unions Act, the Relationships (Statutory References) Bill. This is actually the legislation that gives the real teeth to Civil Unions, and arguably will do the greater damage. But it not only provides "unionised" couples (what are we going to call them?) with virtually all the legal entitlements of marriage, it will also make de facto relationships legally equally to marriage in almost every respect. The biggest problem the Select Committee is having at the moment is trying to find some way of defining a de facto relationship, to try and prevent a week-old relationship from qualifying. The long-term problems are going to be enormous. As de factos are equal to marriage, we effectively will have legal bigamy, as nothing in the legislation will prevent serial or even concurrent multiple de facto relationships. Already, if a person dies without making a will, every de facto partner has equal claim on the person's estate, along with any surviving married partner. (You can read the fine print in the Administration Act 2001).
2) Hate speech legislation. This is not a given, although the government has launched an inquiry into the possibilities. Moves for it are being driven by some well-placed people with a strong agenda to shut down Christians and opposition to homosexual activism, but submissions to the government committee in the main have been vehemently opposed. This is one area in which libertarians and conservatives see eye to eye.
3) Adoption by same-sex couples. The new Adoption Act has already been drafted and is simply waiting in the wings for the passing of the Relationships Bill. It is a direct follow-on from Civil Unions.
4) The elections. What can stop the Clark/Labour juggernaut? There is nothing on the horizon at the moment. But it is amazing how little things (such as the infamous worm) can change the political landscape in an instant, when major issues seemingly have no impact. Guess it illustrates the truth of the Butterfly effect (a factor in Chaos Theory).
5) Probably not in 2005, but likely in the next term if Labour returns to power, are:
a)Renewed efforts to ban smacking.
b)Legalisation of Polygamy. The Ministry of Women's Affairs has already stated that it could be considered discrimination not to permit polygamy. The foot in the door could be to allow Muslims to immigrate with multiple wives (on the grounds of multiculturalism); then to allow Muslim men to marry here; then to allow for everybody.
Further down the track: Suggestions are already being floated to lower the age of consent; the age for marriage; and to permit incest. It might take 10 years for some of these to gain sufficient traction, but as the only remaining criteria for relationships appears to be consent and commitment, it is hard to see how ultimately they can be resisted, short of a moral and/or spiritual revolution.
Scarcely a couple of weeks into the new year, and already I feel like I'm suffering from information overload. This year could be a long haul.
So what's ahead of us for 2005? The government or its various agencies have flagged a number of things you can expect to see.
1) Passage of the companion Bill to the Civil Unions Act, the Relationships (Statutory References) Bill. This is actually the legislation that gives the real teeth to Civil Unions, and arguably will do the greater damage. But it not only provides "unionised" couples (what are we going to call them?) with virtually all the legal entitlements of marriage, it will also make de facto relationships legally equally to marriage in almost every respect. The biggest problem the Select Committee is having at the moment is trying to find some way of defining a de facto relationship, to try and prevent a week-old relationship from qualifying. The long-term problems are going to be enormous. As de factos are equal to marriage, we effectively will have legal bigamy, as nothing in the legislation will prevent serial or even concurrent multiple de facto relationships. Already, if a person dies without making a will, every de facto partner has equal claim on the person's estate, along with any surviving married partner. (You can read the fine print in the Administration Act 2001).
2) Hate speech legislation. This is not a given, although the government has launched an inquiry into the possibilities. Moves for it are being driven by some well-placed people with a strong agenda to shut down Christians and opposition to homosexual activism, but submissions to the government committee in the main have been vehemently opposed. This is one area in which libertarians and conservatives see eye to eye.
3) Adoption by same-sex couples. The new Adoption Act has already been drafted and is simply waiting in the wings for the passing of the Relationships Bill. It is a direct follow-on from Civil Unions.
4) The elections. What can stop the Clark/Labour juggernaut? There is nothing on the horizon at the moment. But it is amazing how little things (such as the infamous worm) can change the political landscape in an instant, when major issues seemingly have no impact. Guess it illustrates the truth of the Butterfly effect (a factor in Chaos Theory).
5) Probably not in 2005, but likely in the next term if Labour returns to power, are:
a)Renewed efforts to ban smacking.
b)Legalisation of Polygamy. The Ministry of Women's Affairs has already stated that it could be considered discrimination not to permit polygamy. The foot in the door could be to allow Muslims to immigrate with multiple wives (on the grounds of multiculturalism); then to allow Muslim men to marry here; then to allow for everybody.
Further down the track: Suggestions are already being floated to lower the age of consent; the age for marriage; and to permit incest. It might take 10 years for some of these to gain sufficient traction, but as the only remaining criteria for relationships appears to be consent and commitment, it is hard to see how ultimately they can be resisted, short of a moral and/or spiritual revolution.
