New Zealand News - NZ - Civil Unions bill impact 'will... -
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Last Visited: 8/26/2004
There were practical difficulties with giving de facto marriages the same status as marriage and civil union, said Law Society legislative committee member Rachel Dunningham.
The bill did not specify how long people could be together before they were deemed to be in a de facto marriage and definitions of de facto marriages in the Relationships Bill needed to be clearer, she said.
Act MP Stephen Franks, a member of the justice and law select committee and a critic of the bill, said the approximately 160,000 to 180,000 de facto couples would have no idea just how far-reaching the changes to their lives could be.
"Married couples and de facto couples will be identical for all practical purposes," he said.
"People will not be thinking about this when they shack up."