Clock ticking on marriage inquiry

Clock ticking on marriage inquiry

This is the last week in which the Senate’s inquiry into Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young’s Marriage Equality Amendment Bill will accept public submissions.

The cut-off date is April 2, so if you want to make a submission you have only six days left.

The Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee is due to report back on the issue by June 6.

A 2009 inquiry into Hanson-Young’s 2009 same-sex marriage bill saw more than 20,000 submissions — a record number for an Australian Senate inquiry.

Australian Marriage Equality (AME) national convenor Alex Greenwich said it was important that opposing submissions did not outweigh supportive ones.

“So far around 10,000 Australians have put forward the case for equality, but this is still short of the 13,000 submissions against equality received by the last inquiry,” Greenwich said.

He encouraged people to get their friends and family involved.


“If you have already made your submission, please email at least five contacts asking them to make one.”

Sydney filmmaker Barry McKay has produced a video (below) in conjunction with AME which he hopes will answer questions about the inquiry and encourage more people to make submissions.

The video features Greenwich, NSW Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby senior policy advisor Senthorun Raj and Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) Australia national spokeswoman Shelley Argent and her son James Argent.

AME has a dedicated web page through which you can make submissions to the inquiry at www.australianmarriageequality.com/senate-inquiry-submission-form/

In related news, close to 65,000 people have taken part in an online survey set up by the House of Representatives’ parallel inquiry into Greens MP Adam Bandt’s and Labor MP Stephen Jones’ marriage equality bills, with just over half of those doing so in support of same-sex marriage.

The House of Representatives inquiry will hold formal hearings on the issue on Thursday, April 12. The resulting report is expected to be tabled in Parliament on June 18.

The cut-off date to take part in the House of Representatives’ online survey is April 20.

The link for the House of Representatives survey is www.surveymk.com/s/spla-marriage

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3 responses to “Clock ticking on marriage inquiry”

  1. URGENT : Submission to the Inquiry on the Marriage Equality Amendment Bill 2010
    Dear Committee Secretary,

    As an Australian who believes same-sex couples should be able to marry, I strongly support the Marriage Equality Amendment Bill 2010 because Australia’s current Marriage Act is toxic and it sickens me. It has contributed to the death of those I love, and it has held me separate from the one I love for many many years. Trapped in love and apart for endless years when all I want to do is go down on bended knee as say to him first not to any lord, that I do take you for ever and ever and to the exclusion of all others. Will you be mine as I will be yours? Because I do. I already do. It is a fact already, not a prayer to the lord or a promise to the state. But no, I am an unnatural person so we are trapped apart by insensitive, in fact vicious disregard for both our lives. This is typical of Australia these days. Callas disregard for life.

    At all costs and in any event I call upon all Inquire members to seek out and solve the many areas of vicious discrimination in Australian law and regulations. Do not fool yourselves that these serious issues have already been solved. They certainly have not been. Further, political dealings with my most sensitive, intimate and passionate emotions, are callas and not what Australian expect from Government or society. Why should I be forced to lay bare private details before my Government when it is societies duty to understand itself first. This politicisation of my sex life has become totally toxic.

    1. THE AUSTRALIAN CONSTITUTION GAUREENTEES US SECULAR LAW.
    2. THE MARRAGE ACT IS A SECULAR RIGHT.
    3. MY RIGHTS UNDER THE CONSTITUION ARE BEING DESTROYED BY THE CHURCH.
    4. THAT IS ILLEGAL.
    5. EVEN AN POVERTY STRICKEN ANCIENT HINDU KINGDOM IS LIGHT YEARS AHEAD OF OUR CORRUPT AND FIXATED SOCIETY.

    We gay people have cared for this society and we dont desirve this. It is criminal.

    Date of Submission: 30 March, 2012
    Attention:
    Ms Julie Dennett
    Committee Secretary, Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee
    PO Box 6100, Parliament House, Canberra ACT 2600, Australia

    Please accept my submission to the Inquiry into the Marriage Equality Amendment Bill 2010.

  2. Marriage should only be between one man and one woman. This does not discriminate against homosexuals it simply recognises important differences in human relationships. The Marriage union between a man and a woman is unique, special and very important to society and should continue to be recognised as such with its own unique law.

  3. If we can get 10,000 people dancing in the Mardio Gras then we should be getting 200,000 submissions.

    Come on everyone – make your submission and get all your friends to so it too x