this time by nearly 13,000 votes, but was re-elected on the party list. National's highest party vote was again in Epsom. National also won the election overall. Worth became Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister for Land Information, Minister Responsible for Archives New Zealand, Minister Responsible for the National Library and Associate Minister of Justice. Worth was reportedly a contender for Speaker of the House, with the support of the previous speaker Jonathan Hunt, but Lockwood Smith was selected instead. Policies and actions Worth's maiden speech in February 2000 focused on trade, economics and Asia. In 2002 he faced questions from his party for sightseeing in Cairo instead of attending a Maori Battalion service during an official trip to Egypt. In 2005 he proposed the creation of a National Day to replace Waitangi Day. He proposed 24 May, the day that the New Zealand colony was granted a representative constitution by the British Parliament. Worth was a member of the Select Committee hearing submissions about the Civil Union Bill. He was a strong opponent of the bill, which allowed legal recognition of same-sex couples though a second class of relationships besides marriage. Worth was concerned that civil unions were in effect marriages, and he described the government as "anti-family" and said that "marriage is a valuable institution in civil society and it is important that its value is not degraded or diminished by Act of Parliament." Worth said that civil unions would discriminate against non-sexual relationships, and proposed an amendment to the bill which would allow any two people, including family members and friends, to register a civil relationship that established certain rights such as right to visit in hospital or make medical decisions. Worth reported that this amendment had about one-third of the votes in the Committee stage and was not included into the bill. Ultimately the bill was passed and became the Civil Union Act 2004. In 2007 Worth proposed a private members bill to address miscarriages of justice. However, the Ministry of Justice recommended to the Labour Government that they not adopt it. The Deputy Prime Minister of the time, Michael Cullen, wrote to Worth about his bill saying it was too broad and might have unwarranted constitutional and fiscal consequences, that the Government would not support it. As Minister for Land Information, Worth introduced the Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill in 2008. This bill sought to