‘Gay’ reform ‘supported by 67%’
PA Wellington Sixty-seven per cent of New Zealand’s voting population supports homosexual law reform, according to a preliminary analysis by the Wellington Gay Task Force. The Gay Task Force says it has studied the petition opposing the Homosexual Law Reform Bill and the electors te-by-electorate breakdown of the petition. “We have relied on the data provided by the petitioners — on their figures - and the figures show quite simply the number of people in each electorate who don’t support the petition,” said the Gay Task Force spokesman, Mr Bill Logan. The Gay Task Force has used 1981 census figures which showed that 78.5 per cent of the population in each electorate was, on average, over 12. “Of that figure, 89 per cent are over 18 and therefore eligible voters,” Mr Logan said. An analysis of these figures showed that 67 per cent of the electoral population supported reform, he said. “We assume that those people who did not sign the petition support some form of reform because people wanting to sign the petition have had ample opportunity to do so. “Signatures have been collected over 175 days, petition forms have been widely distributed, the Salvation Army has used its resources to collect signatures, and petition forms have’been dropped in letterboxes throughout New Zealand so everybody has had an opportunity to sign.” Mr Logan said the detailed analysis on an elec-torate-by-electorate basis would be released today. “We will be giving the total who support reform in each electorate, but there will be some margin for error.” . .. Positive support of the 62.3 per cent of New Zealanders support
the bill, up 1.6 per ce..t on a poll taken in late June, the Gay Task Force said.
There has been a slight drop in uncommitted opinion, from 4.6 per cent. The Gay Task Force’s coordinator, Mr Peter Wall, said that the poll reflected growing nationwide acceptance of the bill, and “overruled” the petition opposing the bill which will be presented to Parliament today.
‘Gay’ reform ‘supported by 67%’
Press, 24 September 1985, Page 4
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