MEDIA RELEASE
26 March 2013
Latest Poll Confirms No Mandate for Same-Sex Marriage
Family First says that the latest NZ Herald poll on gay marriage proves that 70-80 politicians have no mandate to change the longstanding definition of marriage.
“As the debate on redefining marriage has heated up, the support for changing the definition of marriage has steadily
dropped. We have finally got past the slogans of ‘marriage equality’ and ‘discrimination’ and the debate is now centered
around facts, such as the real purpose and role of marriage, and the fact that there is actually no discrimination in
the law currently,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ, and the Protect Marriage campaign.
“Politicians pushing the bill have been quoting a TVNZ poll from the middle of last year with 2/3’rds support for gay marriage as justification for changing the definition. But
all the recent polling shows that that poll is now not reliable. A Family First-commissioned poll of 1,000 people undertaken by Curia Market Research last month also found a similar split to the NZ Herald poll, with only 47% agreeing that Parliament should change the definition of marriage to allow same-sex couples to
marry and 43% saying that they believed civil unions were sufficient. This echoes a similar slide in polling by Research NZ which showed support for ‘same-sex marriage’ dropping to less than 50%, down 11% from a similar poll in 2011.”
“Despite the Select Committee arrogantly riding rough-shod over the overwhelming number of submissions in an attempt to
create a ‘shot-gun marriage’, these results are energising our campaign to maintain the definition of marriage as is,
and shows that the politicians simply do not have the mandate to change such a major cultural and social institution,”
says Mr McCoskrie.
“The politicians should pause, listen, and reject the bill.”
ENDS