Labour MP and LGBTQIA+ advocate Louisa Wall is calling on the Catholic church in New Zealand to support homosexual law reform in the Cook Islands.
Although a draft bill to decriminalise homosexuality was presented to the Cook Islands parliament, it was scrapped in 2019 due to pressure from the religious community.
Louisa Wall says Pope Francis' support for civil unions for same sex couples has given Catholic leaders a clear mandate to accept the LGBT community as children of God.
Wall, who also introduced the bill to legalise same-sex marriage in New Zealand in 2012, speaks to Guyon Espiner.