photo credit:MIKE SEGAR / REUTERS)
Some key points in his career:
- Won East Coast Bays in the 1987 General Election after being a Labour seat for 3 consecutive elections.
- 2004: Voted against a bill to establish civil unions
- 2005: Voted for the Marriage (Gender Clarification) Amendment Bill 2005, which would have amended the Marriage Act to define marriage as only between a man and a woman.
- 2008: Sworn in as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister for Sport and Recreation and Minister for the Rugby World Cup
- 2013: Voted against the Marriage Amendment Bill, a bill allowing same sex couples to get married in New Zealand.
- December 2016: Announced he would not stand in the 2017 General Election
- December 2016: Shafted Israel with the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334
Personally I will not be sad to see him go, when he took matters into his own hands and knifed Israel in the back on behalf of all New Zealanders in a decision to co sponsor UN resolution 2334 was an unforgivable move which damaged our relationship with Israel. The resolution was not put before cabinet, with the vote taking place on Christmas Eve.
What’s worse, is probably Bill English’s damp words to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
I regret the damage done to relations between New Zealand and Israel as a result of New Zealand’s co-sponsorship of UNSC resolution 2334.
Regretful of the damage done, but not the cause of it. He could have shortened that by saying “Sorry, but not sorry.”
After McCully being timid with his views on Israel for so long, his hatred came out in the wash in the end having already made the decision not to stand for re-election.
I wonder if he’s one of the “owner/operators” that Maurice Williamson was referring to at the beginning of his own valedictory speech. Sorry Murray but don’t let the door hit you in the arse on the way out, and good riddance.