"Last week's reported cumulative $200 million bill for long-term jobless is nothing," says Lindsay Mitchell, Petitioner for a Parliamentary Review of the DP.

"If thousands of gay couples are 'double-dipping', as spokesperson for the lesbian community, Jenny Rankine indicates, then we could be looking at a bill that exceeds $200 million every year!"

"Because the Social Security Act does not recognise same-sex relationships, thousands of gay couples are eligible for, and receiving benefits that heterosexual couples are not."

"What we have here," Mitchell continues, "Is yet another example of a minority group holding the rest of the population to ransom. The government can find money to pay benefits to members of minority groups that they deny to others lacking these special characteristics. At the same time heart patients are dying on surgery waiting lists and breast cancer patients are having to wait for treatment sometimes months beyond what is considered a safe period."

"Successive governments have been party to this anomaly for a long time." Mitchell finishes, "When will they act to stop it?"

Lindsay Mitchell Petitioner for a Parliamentary Review of the DPB ph/fx 04 562 7944 e-mail dandl.mitchell@clear.net.nz