Over on Election08, Scoop's Gordon Campbell interviews Peter Dunne. The interview includes this assessment of his former party members:
we had some people who imagined that United Future could become New Zealand’s version of the Taliban... [a]nd they’ve now thankfully left to pursue their course to oblivion.Dunne also talks about abortion, and it appears that while he's Catholic, he's relatively sane on this issue (or rather, recognises that he cannot dictate that others live according to his religious beliefs), and seems to favour some liberalisation simply for practical reasons:
the procedure of a woman, her doctor and two certifying consultants is somewhat cumbersome. I think probably, you should be looking at the woman, her doctor and informed consent.And that said, he could have a strange idea of "informed consent". His former party mates certainly did, and Gordon Copeland still has a bill in the ballot requiring women to sit through SPUC propaganda in order to get an abortion - something which is both demeaning, and a significant barrier to access. OTOH, given his general sanity and attitude towards Copeland, that's unlikely to be the case - still, it would have been useful if Campbell had explored exactly what he meant there.
