Civil Union bill is delayed

Thanks to Lianne Dalziel - or should that be NZPA's Mary Longmore - the introduction of the Civil Union Bill and the Omnibus bill is now delayed until mid-May. New Associate Justice Minister David Benson-Pope is too busy on other things and the Government is too busy at the moment trying to sort out the Maoris.

...and have you read the latest North and South Magazine? Lianne Dalziel has a letter in the letters to the editor section - written before she got fired and published afterwards - criticising me for something I didn't even say. She was responding to my letter in a previous edition (for which I got a pen, thanks) about families struggling on a low income. I said "what would Dalziel know about bringing up kids?" She implied that the fact that she is childless had nothing to do with her abilities in promoting the Care of Children Bill, and she was a fit minister, and able to promote the bill.

I never mentioned her fitness to be a minister for anything. Miss Clark has sorted that one out.