A lesbian couple say they're the victims of discrimination after they were turned down for a job because of their sexuality.
The pair were told they weren't a traditional male/female couple so their application to manage a holiday park was rejected.
Emily Carter and Danika Te Moananui consider themselves to be handy women and they like hard work.
The couple aren't afraid to get their hands dirty. They've worked with cars, on farms and in shops.
But they say their skills and experience counted for nothing when they applied to manage Whitianga's Mercury Bay Holiday Park.
The owner emailed back to say he wanted a traditional male/female couple.
The owner told them: "A man is required to attend to male aspects of our clientele, and similarly a female for feminine issues. If you better read and understood the position you were applying for then you could have saved yourself whatever embarrassment may have occurred, none on my part."
"There's no such thing as a traditional couple anymore," they say. "There's just people who love each other and we're all people."
The ad never specified a man and woman; it simply asked for a "multi-skilled couple".
The Human Rights Commission wouldn't talk about this case but said: "It is illegal to discriminate on the grounds of sex in New Zealand unless there is a genuine occupation requirement."
It is difficult to meet a threshold that would require specifically a man or a woman to do a job. 3 News repeatedly asked the holiday park owner for an interview but he declined. He said our enquiries were nonsense and a waste of time.
But this couple says they simply want to be given a fair go.
3 News
source: newshub archive
