Relationships Bill voting details

The Dominion Post reported today that the Relationships (Statutory References) Bill passed its first reading 77 – 42.

I haven’t seen any published details of the full vote split, but have managed to track a copy of the vote down. It was:

Labour 48 – 3 (only Cosgrove, Field and O’Connor against)

National 11 – 16 (Key, Mapp, McCully, Sowry, te Heuheu and Williamson joining the CUB 5 in favour)

NZ First 2 – 11 (no change from CUB)

Green 9 – 0

ACT 2 – 6 (only Hide and Shirley in favour, despite six voting for the CUB!)

United 3 – 5 (Dunne, Copeland and Turner in favour)

Progressive 2 – 0 (no change)

Independent 0 – 1 (why is she still there?)

So every party had at least two MPs in favour. However it could struggle as people see the details. According to Russell Brown, it extends relationships rights not just to those in civil unions, but also to those who have explicitly decided not to marry or have a civil union and are de facto partners. The select committee is going to have a lot of work to do.