Posts by Russell Brown
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Here's 47 seconds of Beastwars at Real Groovy yesterday:
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Hard News: The Treasure at the End of…, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Easily. No government controls private members bills – which is kinda sorta the point of having them at all. I’d also note the Human Rights Amendment Act, 1993, was passed with a overwhelming bipartisan majority under the previous National Government.
Yes, but only three National MPs voted for the civil union bill -- and they've all left Parliament. (Quite a few also voted for the odious and stupid "gender clarification" bill, Collins included. I appreciate her recent change of mind, but her record is poor.) Had the current large National caucus voted like that on marriage equality, the bill would have been lost.
That they didn't is possibly quite largely down to John Key's comments shortly before Wall's bill was drawn, which surely allowed some of his caucus to be a little bolder than they might have.
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Hard News: The Treasure at the End of…, in reply to TracyMac,
I personally feel that the biggest achievement for queer rights, once the sodomy canard was out the way, was the change to the Human Rights Act in 1993. A huge fight, but with an early win when the armed forces said they would not seek exemption to the terms of the act, thus making gays in the military a non-event.
You make a very good point, given that in 1977, Parliament explicitly ruled out homosexuals from protection under the Human Rights Act. It's an easy one to forget.
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Hard News: Key Questions, in reply to Matthew Poole,
It’s not unseemly when it’s politicians, because good political leaders should always be on the lookout for talent; there’s no hiring process, either, unlike for civil servants.
Quite. It's an entirely different situation.
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Hard News: The Treasure at the End of…, in reply to diversitynz,
Great post Russell — here’s mine in response.
;-)
Oddly enough, I've been in a relationship for nearly 25 years without bothering to get married. I can't see that changing.
So clearly, I'm not placing a lot of personal value on marriage. But I don't have any ideological objection to it either, at all. It just didn't seem necessary to us, and I'm not alone in my peer group: a number of my closest friends have made the same (non) choice.
I'm slightly bemused by all the marrying twentysomethings I know -- and especially the occasional woman changing her surname (ye gods!). But I suppose I'm of the generation that delivered a lot of double-barrelled surnames to new entrant school rolls. In my 20s, almost no one in my peer group got married.
I do get David Herkt's contention that the LGBT community has established other kinds of satisfying long-term relationships, and many people in that community may have no use for the institution of marriage.
But, as Craig says, it's about having the same choices as everyone else.
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Hard News: The Treasure at the End of…, in reply to James Caygill,
Don’t forget that Homosexual Law Reform actually legalised sodomy for all, not just men.
True dat!
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Hard News: The Treasure at the End of…, in reply to nzlemming,
PS I know I’ve been away, but didn’t there used to be a quote function on here?
Highlight the text you want to quote and hit "Reply", or use the quote code shown below your edit window.
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Hard News: Media3: Panic or Peril?, in reply to James W,
I’m the guy who did the ‘Selling the News’ infographic Shayne Currie was talking about on the show. I’m pleased he took the project in the way it was intended and was respectful of the results.
I was very impressed by his response. He took no convincing to come the show.
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Up Front: Gathered Together, in reply to Emma Hart,
But, as Craig said, it doesn’t matter shit. Some laws are about standing up and making a statement about who we are as a nation. They’re bigger and far more important than their on the ground practical effect. This is one of them.
Quoted for truth.
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Up Front: Gathered Together, in reply to Emma Hart,
Some highlights from last night. (Yes, I am hung-over, and yes my phone battery died before the night was out, yes I am still catching up.)
I figured you might be suffering, so I wrote a thing. :-)