O’Farrell backs gay marriage conscience vote
NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell has said that he would allow Liberal MPs a conscience on the issue of same-sex marriage if the issue were presented on a state level.
O’Farrell joins South Australian Liberal leader Isobel Redmond in support of a coalition conscience vote on same-sex marriage.
The NSW Premier expressed his support today in response to an inquiry on the issue from Australian Marriage Equality national convener Alex Greenwich on Twitter.
O’Farrell’s stance puts him at odds with Federal Opposition leader Tony Abbott, whose office has said there would be no conscience vote for Federal Liberal MPs on marriage equality legislation.
Greenwich welcomed the Premier’s comments on the issue.
“The Premier knows that there is growing support for marriage equality within the coalition, and understands the importance of allowing that support to be expressed,” he said.
The Marriage Act is a Federal legislative instrument. Only the Federal Government can amend it. The conscience vote ploy presents a convenient cop out whereby Labor can take the high moral ground by calling for such a vote, knowing all the while that it will be defeated on the floor of Parliament. Count people: the numbers just aren’t there! Then Labor can rightly claim, enough said about gay marriage. The only proper course of action is legislative reform, amending the Marriage Act so that the Parliament becomes neutral on exactly which adults can marry. Marriage is a peculiar type of contract at law, and so in that regard it is nefarious for any politician to mesh into that the separate issue of religion, and religious ceremony. I might want to get married to my partner, yes, for sure, but not in St Mary’s Cathedral.
I do not really give a rat’s arse about how they personally feel regarding gay marriage. What I do care about is that the MAJORITY of Australians support my right to a gay marriage and that in a democracy we are supposed to have social equality. You would think they got the message from the last election, but we may have to keep replacing the cowards who fear the religious right (or are religious right) with more accommodating members.
There is nothing remotely brave about a conscience vote.
Both parties support the International universal declaration of human rights which currently includes sexual orientation.
You just call the troops in and vote in block on it like all issues.
But no the exceptionalism metted out to LBGI ppl. always has to be fraught with politicians and their consciences.
What a load of codswhallop!!
Its just to make O’Farrell look like he has a heart. And then of course the vote will fail just like the largesse?! of Gillard and her looming conscience vote. We’ll have the pathetic answer of how they tried so hard to push it thru. Oh plu-ease, these inner city feds like Albanese and Plibersek need to go and make way for someone who has courage of their convictions and just bloody well does the ‘right thing’ because it is the ‘right thing ‘ to do. You call numbers, vote and get the job done!! But no we have to go and ask the entire Australian community how they feel!!! wtf!!
But my favorite bit of hypocrasy is foreign minister Kevin Rudd lecturing the developing and backward countries of the commonwealth to decriminalize homosexuality in their counties….
“Australia is a global advocate of non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation…”
go figure.
Abbott is Hitler Light, making your birth a punishment. The Federal Liberal Party are of the Far Right, and will fuck Australia.
A conscience vote is a cop out and a way to kill the issue. Why shouldn’t governments legislate and vote in accordance with the views of the public (the majority of whom support marriage equality) rather than vote in accordance with their own personal view (the majority of whom don’t support marriage equality)? Their is also a danger that this tatic will divide the support base for marriage equality in Australia as many people don’t realise that the ramifications and strategy behind a conscience vote are actually negative not positive.
It’s good to finally see a key politician in Oz with a spine in regards to this issue! I think that it give us all some hope that not all key politicians are just puppets of the hateful right-wing.
One comment on the Australian Marriage Equality wall on Facebook cynically mentioned that it’s only something that can be changed on a Federal level, and that it’s only being mentioned to gain Barry some ‘brownie-points’. Nevertheless, even if that is the case, it still shows a key politician who is strong and confident enough to publicly support this issue, and this makes a nice change for once.