‘Report-back not a waste’: Bandt
A report-back session on same-sex marriage in federal Parliament organised by Greens MP Adam Bandt failed to reveal the level of support for same-sex marriage, with 120 out of 150 members of the House of Representatives choosing not to take part.
Of the 30 who did take part, 21 MPs reported that their electorates were against reform. All but one of these MPs were opposed to changing the Marriage Act and several had not asked constituents to contact them with their views.
Several known supporters of same-sex marriage did not speak due to conflicting schedules.
“As only 30 out of 150 MPs spoke, the relative numbers for or against are not necessarily an accurate poll of the view of Parliament,” Bandt said.
Bandt told the Star Observer he was disappointed by the number who chose to participate but believed the effort had not been wasted. MPs from both major parties declared their personal support or the support of their electorates during the process. Some MPs who had not spoken during the report-back made the results of their consultations public beforehand.
“It is now clear that [Prime Minister] Julia Gillard and [Opposition leader] Tony Abbott do not speak for all their MPs or their voters,” Bandt said.
“This week generated more public and media discussion about equal love … which is just as important to changing things as the particulars of the report-back in the Parliament.
“We have a bill before the Senate to remove discrimination from the Marriage Act. We will now use this week’s discussion as a further platform to build support for the bill. This will include encouraging Labor to adopt a policy of support for full equality at their National Conference in December.”
The request for MPs to canvas their electorates was a massive step forward to the gay community even though it doesn’t look like that on the surface. Our leaders are not the moral voice of Australians. Australians are the moral voice of Australians and it is through such awareness raising that more and more people are talking about the idea. I live in north QLD and although the member for Dawson dodged asking constituents about gay marriage directly (by sending out a survey requesting people to list 4 issues that concerned them most) he did indirectly bring the debate to people’s attention by telling the papers how little support there was for it in the community. In response to his lack of representation a Facebook page was created called “I live in Mackay and I support Same-Sex Marriage.” Within a few days the page, informing people to write to Mr Christensen, has hundreds of “likes” (members). As they say a lot up here, “it’s all good.”
The debate was never scientific, the survey results were not open to the public. But it was a great device to keep the debate going and it certainly did get people thinking about equality.