While I was looking for suitable clips for my previous post I came across this moving clip of the scene in the Parliament immediately after the passing of the Definition of Marriage bill in 2013. NZ had allowed gay civil marriages since 2005, but the passing of this bill gave exactly the same rights to gay marriages as heterosexual marriages. The song Pokarekare Ana is a love song known by practically all Kiwis.
15 Mar, 2015 at 3:01 am
Very moving.
15 Mar, 2015 at 8:11 am
Theoretically, the public watching proceedings from the gallery are supposed to be silent and not interrupt the House. While not an everyday occurrence, events like this are not uncommon.
15 Mar, 2015 at 3:51 am
So Cool! Lord I wish there was still that humanity in our government.
15 Mar, 2015 at 8:05 am
We often chastise our politicians for being, well, politicians. But given the right environment, most of them can be very decent people. I think that one of the benefits of proportional representation is that politics becomes a little less confrontational. It’s no longer “my way or the highway”. There’s more room for diversity.