Murray marriage petition ‘skewed’

Murray marriage petition ‘skewed’

A Shepparton man has set up a petition for same-sex marriage in the face of figures confirmed by local federal Liberal MP Dr Sharman Stone that 98 percent of correspondence to her office is against same-sex marriage — with only nine people for

Uniting Care Cutting Edge community development worker Damien Stevens has since set up an online petition, saying the figure is not representative of Stone’s electorate of Murray.

“She’s been in her safe seat for quite some time and I’m very sure, as she puts it, her focus is about putting food on the table.

“The [feedback] farmers and people give her is very conservative and they are keeping her in her safe seat, therefore I don’t think she’s going to change her opinion in a hurry.”

Stevens said, despite living in an electorally conservative area, he believes the figures have been skewed and he plans to promote his same-sex marriage survey in coming weeks. Currently he has more than 260 online supporters — from a range of electorates — and hopes to get 1000, mostly locals, in favour.

“The people I speak to say I’ve got friends and family and none of them are against same-sex marriage.

“The more people I speak to, most people either don’t have an opinion, or if they have to have an opinion they don’t care, or if they do have an opinion, it’s generally yay, not nay.”

It’s understood most of those against have come from petitions from Catholic and evangelical churchgoers in the area.

Openly gay Tom, 19, from Numurkah told the Star Observer he would like to get married one day and was “disappointed” by the statistics, but said he believes opposition to same-sex marriage is not that strong.

“The facts are being misrepresented,” he said.

Stone has already indicated her opposition to gay marriage telling The Shepparton News recently the “status quo … was a sensible arrangement.”

“If gay couples wish to have something else to recognise their long-term relationship then we need to come up with another word which is respectful of their relationship,” Stone told the newspaper.

“But you can’t change the meaning of the word … when it says in the law it happens between a man and a woman.”

Stone has been clear she is not going out of her way to canvass her electorate, but she has received views since Greens MP Adam Bandt moved a motion calling for MPs to consult their electorates on the issue.

A spokesman from Stone’s office told the Star Observer more views have been received, but a count has not been finalised.

Although official figures on same-sex marriage have not been taken in Murray, Roy Morgan research released last year showed 28.6 percent of the electorate believed homosexuality was immoral — a figure that was midway of all electorates canvassed. However, indicating less support, only 38.2 percent agreed gay couples should adopt children.

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9 responses to “Murray marriage petition ‘skewed’”

  1. I would like to add it would be nice if Labor could hold a Sorry day and give a pardon to all those people who spent time in Jail for acting on their homosexuality and making love to another adult.

    The ugly disgraceful history of Labor and Liberal is within living memory of many Australians.

  2. Just a few years ago, the Liberal and Labor Party were strongly opposed to letting GLBTI people make love to their lifelong partner. People were sent to jail for acts of homosexuality.

    If people did not have the backbone to stand against this oppression, and get justice, homosexuality would still be illegal.

    Same-Sex Marriage will happen in Australia as we have people with the courage and conviction to fight for equality before the law, and there will be no second class Civil Union for the sake of religious zealots in the Liberal and Labor Party.

  3. Dave, Stone’s method in her ‘consultation’ reflects that she is not only profoundly stupid, she is also patronising. She brings down the bar of the Party. Her mode of operation does not reflect that of the Liberal Party as whole.

    I do not care to dwell on political partisan positions within the any notion of the Gay community; it is divisive.

    The dominant faction within the Liberal Party is roughly aligned with the conservative christians, with conservative catholics being a dominant player. However Abbott has only a 22% rating as preferred leader, and thus this alignment in context of votes has to be viewed as a negative confounder. Should the coalition fall below the 50% as preferred Party over a significant amount of time then his leadership is tenuous at best. Malcolm was only knifed via one vote. There are liberal christians and even athiests aligned with the Party that are friendly to the goal of Gay marriage.

    Organised religion also has it’s fangs firmly inserted in the Labor Party, and even the crusties.

    I would view Stone as just a villaige idiot, and that would be doing villaige idiots a disservice.

    My Federal party member, labor Kelvin Thomson has not bothered to consult with his electorate. He is in the third safest labor seat in the country…the organised church is insidious.

    If we are to view secular marriage as a goal, them we must look beyond political party partisan lines not only to cement such commitment across parties (yes Anton, I agree), but to maintain some semblance of community.

  4. Dave, England is not moving to marriage, merely allowing Civil Unions to have religious songs/references/imagery or be held in Church grounds if the Church so wishes.

  5. Arguing for second class gay Civil Unions does help the cause, it separates us creating two categories of citizens. England is moving away from the failed Civil Union experiment and giving full marriage as there are simply so many laws that discriminate against people not married, let alone the creation of a second class of citizen.

    If Catholic Spain has the courage to stand for equality and fairness, I think Australia should also. When people of a different skin colour were denied the right to marry, we did not create a second class citizen and call for Civil Unions, we fought for equality and justice against the many religious institutions that were full of hate and bile for people who were not white.

    We got rid of the White Australia Policy and so we can get rid of this discrimination.

  6. We have to keep pushing the idea of civil unions at the town haLL. It’s the idea France had where you remove all religious terms from the civil ceremony; let churches do what they want in their confines. But if we present this as a non partisan, multi-cultural solution it will surely gain greater acceptance.

  7. The same could be said of surveys taken in socially progressive areas that return strong support for gay marriage

  8. My local National Party member lied saying to the media nobody contacted his office in favour of Same-Sex Marriage, but months before we had been exchanging emails on the subject.

    It seems some will do anything to satisfy the mad monk including acting just like him full of deceit.

    The Catholic Church now runs the Liberal Party through puppets like Tony Abbott. The Liberal Party is now adopting most of the Catholic Church internal doctrine and has committed to abusing people in the GLBTI community should they win government Federally. In Victoria they are repealing laws so we can sacked for existing at tax payer funded soup kitchens if they are run by a religious group.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvYzLIywCiA

    https://starobserver.com.au/news/2011/03/24/local-fight-for-equal-rights/47738