Australian Labor Party to Present Gay Marriage Bill to Parliament.

[DesDownunder]

BREAKING: Bill Shorten MP and Tanya Plibersek has just announced that he will move a private member’s bill in the House of Representatives to make marriage equality a reality. SHARE the good news.

Bill Shorten MP

I have given notice that I will move a Private Member’s Bill in the House of Representatives on Monday which will finally bring about marriage equality in Australia.

It’s time for our laws to reflect the values of modern Australia and to include everyone as equals.

All MPs should have a free vote on this matter.

Let’s make marriage equality a reality.

The Greens also have a bill they want to present to Parliament.

[Nigel Gordon]

Good for them.

[Graeme]

That makes three. Besides this one and the Greens, there's another one that was withdrawn earlier this year because the Liberal Party wasn't allowing a conscience vote on the subject (Liberal Democratic senator David Leyonhjelm put it on hold because of the Liberal Party position). Unless the Liberal Party allows a conscience vote, this is just political grandstanding. Hopefully, this will put enough pressure on the Liberals that they do so.

For those not from Australia, voting is almost always along party lines. That means that if the party position is to vote no on something, all members are expected (and generally will) vote no. A conscience vote is where the party members are told that they can 'vote their conscience' with no fear of reprisal from the party (Labor Party members can be expelled from the party if they vote against the party position. The Liberal Party are not as draconian, but there is usual some sort of party disciplinary action taken if a member votes against the party position).

Currently, the Labor Party has a party position in favour of allowing same-sex marriage, but they allow a conscience vote. The Liberal Party has a party position opposing same-sex marriage, and they're not currently allowing a conscience vote. The Prime Minister said before the last election that whether to allow a conscience vote would be decided by the party after the election -- something that hasn't happened yet (it's not been discussed).

Recent polling of the members of parliament has indicated that there is possibly a one vote majority in favour of same-sex marriage in the senate, and that it is within 2-4 votes of passing in the House of Representatives. However, there was also a number of members of parliament who didn't indicate how they would vote, so there is some uncertainty there.

[Nigel Gordon]

Recent polling of the members of parliament has indicated that there is possibly a one vote majority in favour of same-sex marriage in the senate, and that it is within 2-4 votes of passing in the House of Representatives. However, there was also a number of members of parliament who didn't indicate how they would vote, so there is some uncertainty there.

Maybe you should follow the lead of the Republic of Ireland and have a referendum.

[Graeme]

A referendum isn't needed. The High Court of Australia has already ruled that the existing constitution doesn't prevent same-sex marriage. It's purely a legislative issue. The current legislation was changed around 10 years ago to explicitly state that marriage was between one man and one woman. All that's needed is to reverse that change, though changing it to explicitly allow same-sex couples would be even better because it would remove any ambiguity.

[DesDownunder]

Penny Wong (Labor member) wrote:

Yesterday I watched Bill Shorten introduce a bill in the parliament to make marriage equality a reality.

It was an amazing moment to witness and a significant time for so many in our community who have been fighting to make marriage equality a reality for so long.

That’s why I’m surprised to hear that when Tony Abbott and the Liberals met this morning, they didn’t discuss marriage equality at all. Not at all.

Tony Abbott said that when a bill came before the parliament he would let it go before his party room. It’s time for him to keep that promise.

Mr Abbott might be refusing to talk about marriage equality, but we all know Australians want to have this debate.

Share our petition online and help us keep up the pressure on Tony Abbott to support marriage equality.

We’ve currently got over 65,000 signatures from people supporting marriage equality online. Let’s make it 100,000 before the end of the week and make sure Tony Abbott knows where Australians stand.

http://www.itstimeformarriageequality.org.au/

[DesDownunder]

The longer the parliament plays political football, the longer we have to wait for our goal of human rights and marriage equality.
We are plagued with opportunistic pragmatists who are subject to factions which have lost their relevance to the ideologies that once influenced the Aussie fair go for all.

We'll be lucky if the final marriage bill permits couples to marry without restrictions on the sale of lube.

[Graeme]

The latest opinions I've seen is that the Liberal Party will submit their own proposal in August, after the Winter break, with voting on that bill sometime late in the year. I'm not holding my breath.

[DesDownunder]

Delays until August are a travesty of justice in the political process. "Justice delayed is justice denied," and marriage equality is about the justice of equality human rights.

I agree Graeme, don't hold your breath. Abbott and the LNP will probably try to use marriage equality as a wedge issue at the next election.

The LNP, under Abbott, are playing delay tactics, and the religious fundamentalists are getting louder, every day in their opposition.

You could be forgiven for thinking they are from 1885.

[Nigel Gordon]

You could be forgiven for thinking they are from 1885.

Don't you mean 1385?

[DesDownunder]

I believe it was the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 in England that was used to charge Oscar Wilde with Gross Indecency.

However, I'm sure that under the Inquisition and various other crusades, laws, and affronts to human rights, 1385 probably, wasn't a real cool time to be gay either.

[Cole Parker]

Or anything else off the straight and very, very narrow!

C