A man with a mixed history with New Zealand’s glbti community, John Banks, will not stand in the 2014 election. Party President John Boscawen says Banks wants to focus on his family and private business interests. He is also facing a trial on electoral fraud charges next year. Throughout his political and broadcasting career Banks has been viciously homophobic, once saying on his talkback show that shoving barbed wire up a gay man's arse would be "a waste of good barbed wire". Therefore it came as some surprise when he spoke and voted in favour of marriage equality this year. “After three decades and 10 Parliaments, I have had time to reflect—to reflect on what I said and to reflect on what I did. If I knew then what I have since learnt, I would have acted differently,” he said. “I see this as a debate more about human rights, predicated on the basis that we are all entitled to live our lives to the fullest extent of human happiness, while respecting the rights and beliefs of others.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 4th December 2013 - 10:51am