Gordon Frank Copeland (19 August 1943 – 24 November 2018) was a New Zealand politician who served as a Member of Parliament from 2002 to 2008. He entered the House of Representatives as a list MP for the United Future New Zealand Party from 2002 but he resigned from the party in 2007. In March 2009, Copeland became Party President of The Kiwi Party, which he had co-founded with another former United Future list MP, Larry Baldock, in May 2007. Copeland stood for the Conservative Party in the 2011 New Zealand general election. Prior to entering Parliament he held a number of corporate positions before working as the financial administrator for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Wellington.
Early life and family
Of English and Irish ancestry, Copeland was born at Mahana, near Māpua, on 19 August 1943. He was married to Anne and they had five children. He graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Victoria University of Wellington and was qualified as a Chartered Accountant.
Pre-Parliamentary career
Prior to entering parliament, Copeland worked for fourteen years in the oil industry, becoming the chief financial officer of BP in New Zealand. Later, he worked as a self-employed business consultant with corporate and government clients. From 1984 to 2002 he served as the Financial Administrator of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Wellington.
Copeland chaired the Inter-Church Working Party on Taxation (1987–2002) and became a member of the Working Party on Registration, Reporting and Monitoring of Charities that led to setting up the New Zealand Charities Commission.
He participated in a wide range of ecumenical activities, and in 2000 convened "Celebrate Jesus 2000", which saw 28,000 Christians come together at Wellington's Westpac Stadium to celebrate the presumed 2000th birthday of Jesus.
Member of Parliament
The United Future party ranked Copeland second on their party list for the 2002 general election and he won election to Parliament with seven other United Future candidates. In the 2005 general election, he was third on the party list and was one of three United Future MPs.
Opposition to same-sex marriage
Following his 2005 re-election, Copeland gained the support of other social conservatives for his socially conservative political views. In early December 2005, he introduced his colleague Larry Baldock's Marriage Amendment (Gender Clarification) Bill, which emulated Australian and US legislation that sought to define marriage in New Zealand as heterosexual. It failed to win support.
Opposition to abortion and to voluntary euthanasia
Subsequently, Copeland protested against the establishment of a hosted website for Australian euthanasia-activist Philip Nitschke's Exit International organisation, and approached the New Zealand Ministers of Immigration and Information Technology, as well as the New Zealand Police, seeking to frustrate Nitschke's attempts to resettle in that country.
Copeland wanted to introduce a private member's ballot bill designed to require women seeking abortion to undergo mandatory counselling covering both proceeding with the pregnancy and abortion prior to making a decision. This bill, the Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion (Informed Consent) Bill, resembled Australian Capital Territory legislation repealed several years ago. Women do not have to consult optional counselling services under the Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion Act 1977. As a devout Catholic, Copeland espoused anti-abortion views in debates about reproductive freedom for women, and believed that women did not receive relevant information related to abortion procedures, hence the title to the Bill, which was never drawn from the ballot for private members bills.
Opposition to prohibiting parental corporal punishment
Copeland criticised Sue Bradford's private member's Child Discipline Bill (introduced in 2005), an amendment to New Zealand's Crimes Act 1961 which removed the legal defence of "reasonable force" for parents prosecuted for assault on their children, and had previously obtained a Queen's Counsel opinion confirming that legal position. Sue Bradford said that the fact that Copeland did not disclose that his Queen's Counsel, Peter McKenzie, had previously represented Christian organisations like Right to Life New Zealand and the Society for Promotion of Community Standards undermined the opinion.