Many pressured into signing petition — M.P.

Press, 9 May 1985, Page 21

Many pressured into signing petition — M.P.

PA Wellington People throughout New Zealand had claimed to have been pressured into signing the petition against the Homosexual Law Reform Bill, said the member of Parliament for Wellington Central, Ms Fran Wilde. Ms Wilde, who introduced the bill in Parliament, said on Radio New Zealand’s “Morning Report” that a letter from a worker at the Marsden Point Refinery expansion site had alerted her to the problem. That claim was just one of many such allegations, she said.

“I am unfortunately not in a position to release the name of the person concerned because that would probably jeopardise him even further, but apparently the petition was taken round by a person in a position of responsibility and the message that was very clearly given or understood was ’lf

you don’t sign you get sent to a different part of the project where you don’t get as much pay.’ “But, of course, it is not the only example I have had,” she said.

“I have had letters from all over the country on this. “Many people who have received extreme pressure to sign it in their place of employment, others whose children have been pressured into signing it at school, others who have had relations in hospitals, including mental hospitals, who have been asked to sign.

“Frankly, it seems to me that the whole thing has got completely out of hand,” she said.

One of the petition’s organisers, Sir Peter Tait, says canvassers are given specific guidelines for collecting signatures. He said instructions were given to everyone taking the

petitions round to be present and if anybody did not want to sign they were not to use any harassment in any way.

“But when you have just on half a million people signing a petition there are bound to be a few, relatively few,” he said.

Sir Peter said he had not had a single complaint about anybody being harassed.

The petitioners could not prosecute people, but would eliminate any signature given under any duress; he said.