Historic day for Middle Earth

Amid deafening cheers of joy and relief, the 150,000-strong gay community last night finally achieved full equality with other New Zealanders with the passage of a law allowing same-sex partners to marry. The milestone completed a social revolution which began with the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1985, and confirmed this country as the 13th to make the leap to legalising gay marriage. The bill passed by the same margin as its second reading, 77 votes to 44. In other New Zealand-related news, New Zealanders will get Monday off when Waitangi and Anzac days next fall on a weekend. The Labour Party bill to move the day off for Waitangi Day and Anzac Day to Monday when it falls on a weekend passed its third reading last night by 61 votes to 60. That's right, two important laws passed means 100 percent improvement. But Australia are planning to bowl the good times underarm with a planned tower in Melbourne. Australia 108 is a towering 108-level Melbourne apartment/hotel block set to be one of the world's tallest buildings, and it could rise to 388m at 70 Southbank Boulevard near the Yarra, eclipsing Auckland Sky Tower's 328m. That will make the controversial new skyscraper the Southern Hemisphere's tallest building. But Auckland can still beat that by constructing a tower at least one kilometre tall.