Keep up with
Newstalk ZB

Tue, 21 May 2013, 13:03

Have Your Say

Talkback 0800 80 10 80
Overseas +64 9 307 1080
Text 9292

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • RSS
  • Sign Up

Site Search

Search Search

Select your region:

Mike's Editorial: Gay marriage

Share |

By: Mike Hosking | Wednesday, August 01, 2012 10:12 AM

If we’re to have a conscience vote on gay marriage, whose conscience are they voting on?

If an MP is a representative of an electorate, are they voting on what the MP believes is the right thing to do, or what they think their electorate might think of the matter? Or should they actually poll the electorate so the vote is a fair representation of the voters’ thoughts? And then what about the list MPs who represent no one? Why in a conscience matter would their vote count for anything? But that's how it’s going to be done. Our MPs will potentially make history.

Social matters like this are often more profound and important than many of the other decisions they make because they’re matters that go beyond political leanings and economic doctrine. They go deep into people’s personal lives and homes and in that I am not sure we elect governments to do such things. We elect governments to basically run the place on our behalf. Taxes, roads, schools, hospitals, foreign relations. I am not sure any given parliament should ever really be in the business of telling us how to conduct our personal relationships. But what makes it trickier is I am not sure other people should be in the business of telling us how to conduct our personal relationships either.

If you’re gay, you’re gay. It doesn't bother me. If you want to marry someone of the same sex, that doesn't bother me either because who on earth am I to run some sort of commentary on it. Even if I don't think it’s normal, who am I to tell you what to do and how to do it. You can be opposed to things without having to impose yourself on them. If that applies to me and you, then a further step away from the crux of it all is surely the politician who is way too far removed to impose his or her personal view on proceedings. They can run the country without having to run everything.

Further weakening the establishment’s entitlement to tell us what to do and how to do it is the performance of the status quo which is largely built on history and religious belief. Marriage is between a man and a woman but its sanctity starts to fray round the edges a bit when you start to inflict some of the modern statistics like the divorce rate. That's before you get to some of the difficulties certain branches of religion have had when it comes to behaving in a way God might not have frowned upon, far less the legal establishment. So who are they to dictate to us how this whole thing should unfold?

It makes all this, to use a very old cliché, easier said than done. In such personal matters there are no absolutes, certainly not from a government. I have trouble trusting many of them to run an economy, far less laws around personal relationships.

Photo: stock.xchng

 

Mike's Editorial: Teaching profession st ...

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Well praise the Lord, do we see some common sense at last in the teachers&r ...

Political Report: John needs to sort the ...

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

State Homie John Key's certainly been a globe trotter in his time at the to ...

Ramblings of a Redhead: The Curse of Bea ...

Monday, May 20, 2013

I sighed with a heavy heart as a read this latest article on the Daily Mail ...

A new reality TV concept

Monday, May 20, 2013

I can't keep track of all these unreal reality shows. I don't try to but th ...

Mike's Editorial: Breakfast in schools m ...

Monday, May 20, 2013

There is allegedly an announcement coming on feeding kids in schools. Curr ...

Mike's Editorial: Budget reflections

Friday, May 17, 2013

I know it's as dry as dust and none of us apart from the odd numbers nerd o ...

Advertisement
Mike Hosking Breakfast
Advertisement
  • Road still closed after logging truck smash

  • Shouting, then gunshots heard in fatal shooting

  • Key leaves baby decision to the Speaker

  • Concern Redcliffs home wasn't being monitored

  • Chris Lynch on Smoking

  • Chris Lynch talks to Richard T ...

  • Chris Lynch on the aftershock ...

  • Chris Lynch on St Bedes High S ...

  • Tuesday-Things People Do Not W ...

  • Friday-Budget Passion

  • Thursday-Topless Research

  • Wednesday-Gilmore So Gone

National Convention Centre

Do you support the Government's deal with SkyCity over the National Convention Centre

Vote Now

View Results