East Sydney Liberals vote for equality

East Sydney Liberals vote for equality

A Liberal Party branch has voted unanimously to call on its federal representatives to allow a conscience vote on same-sex marriage in what is believed to be an Australian first.

The East Sydney branch recently voted on the motion, “The East Sydney Branch of the Liberal Party calls upon the Federal Liberal Party to permit a free conscience vote for all Liberal federal parliamentarians on the issue of ‘gay marriage’”.

The motion passed unopposed.

Australian Marriage Equality (AME) national convenor Alex Greenwich welcomed the branch resolution which he said was the first such motion of a Liberal Party branch.

“By supporting a free vote, the East Sydney branch is standing up for fundamental Coalition values like individual freedom,” Greenwich said.

“It is also sending a message to the rest of the Coalition about the importance of federal Coalition MPs being allowed to reflect the strong community support for marriage equality.

“AME will be writing to other Coalition branches across Australia, asking them to pass similar motions.”

Greenwich said the motion was consistent with the Coalition’s traditional position in favour of unconditional conscience votes, especially in situations where Labor members had the same freedom.

“Support for marriage equality within the Coalition will only continue to grow, and we hope Mr Abbott does what Coalition values and traditions insist — grant a fully-fledged conscience vote.

“Failure to grant such a vote will result in dissatisfaction from Coalition branches, members and voters, many of whom want their party to play a part in bringing about this historic reform.”

Greenwich also welcomed pro-marriage equality submissions to the Senate inquiry into same-sex marriage from NSW National MLC Trevor Khan, NSW Liberal Legislative Council president Don Harwin, and former Liberal senator Chris Puplick.

In a joint submission with former Sydney Star Observer editor Larry Galbraith, Puplick wrote that legalising same-sex marriage would be the final step in the evolution of marriage towards fairness which had begun 155 years ago in the United Kingdom with the passing of the Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act.

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4 responses to “East Sydney Liberals vote for equality”

  1. The world is changing, Society is facing kingdoms, monarchists, and some factic forces. People dont believe anymore those old ideology discussions about family, god, kings, etc. Politician need to be in synchrony with the society, a clear example for this is Tony Abott, who has kept his homofobic speech even his sister has come out as a happy lesbian. He’s not changing his ‘point of view’ just to be believable and consistent for his party. Is this not believable?
    It’s a mistake of the his political partyto keep him going with this old ideology speech because people don’t engage on it anymore.

    @Mauricio_L_Vera

  2. They say “Hell hath no fury like a woman’s scorn”. Well, that was before Tony Abbott.

  3. The Gospel of Abbott is not a democracy, and the only song in the Hymn book is, “Hate Thy Neighbour and Sister”. Like it or not, the only gift that branch can give according to Abbott, is their virginity.

    Make it about him being Prime Minister, and to use his words, he would sell his arse. He has crushed any notion of democracy in the Liberal Party.