ࡱ> *,+` bjbjss 7    4 6 6 6 6 6 6 $ h*Z  Z o  4 4   0?< 4 0 = = = ( ' h T  Z Z   My Partner and I have our 6 year anniversary coming up later this year. We met while I was on Holdiay in Sydney from NZ in 2000 when I was 20 years old. We lived in NZ until 2004, and we now live in Brisbane. Later this year we are both traveling back to NZ to celebrate our commitment to each other and have our relationship formally recognised by the the NZ Government by entering into a Civil Union. This is going to be a fantastic event, and both our families and friends are looking forward to celebrating this event with us. It does however sadden us that our relationship or union will not be recognised in our home country, and we will not benefit form the equal rights that we could be offered if we were still living in NZ. We are still planning on entering into a Civil Union in the hope that one day the laws of Australia will recognise us, and award us equal rights that hetrosexual couples enjoy. We have considered leaving Australia, and moving to another country that will offer us egual rights, and we may do so in the future, and we are aware of several other couples who have already taken this measure to protect their rights. I think that by this happening Australia is losing very valuble citizens, and the gay community is also losing very valuable members. My partner and I are plannning on growing old together, and we are asking that in our retirement, and should either of us fall sick, we will have the same benefits and rights under Australian law that our heterosexual counterparts enjoy. Regards Ross Chrysall and Mark McDonald hF>hF>CJOJQJ^JaJ     7$8$H$gdF>50P:pF>/ =!"#$% @@@ NormalCJ_HaJmH sH tH DAD Default Paragraph FontRiR  Table Normal4 l4a (k(No List z!!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!1!!000000000000000!h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0h0  8@0(  B S  ? JMJM\ JM JM JM JM\ JM JM JM JM\ ii::! ooCC! B*urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttagscountry-region8 *urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttagsCity9 *urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttagsplace k"   !!!I }F>h@Q`@UnknownGz Times New Roman5Symbol3& z Arial?5 z Courier New"h;&;&!!!r4d2X)?F>2Oh+'0d   , 8DLT\ Normal.dot4Microsoft Office Word@@(@(՜.+,0 px  !  Title  !"#$'Root Entry F0CB<)1Table =WordDocument7SummaryInformation(DocumentSummaryInformation8CompObjq  FMicrosoft Office Word Document MSWordDocWord.Document.89qRoot Entry F0HgB.1Table =WordDocument7SummaryInformation( -DocumentSummaryInformation8pCompObjq  FMicrosoft Office Word Document MSWordDocWord.Document.89q՜.+,D՜.+,< px  !  Title4 $,