AME campaigns against Labor
The Australian Marriage Equality (AME) group is asking voters in the ALP-held seat of Sydney not to support the Labor Party while it refuses to allow same-sex couples to marry.
AME have begun distributing flyers to households throughout the electorate highlighting Labor’s support for the current ban on same-sex marriage.
AME national secretary Peter Furness said supporters of marriage equality were frustrated with the ALP’s refusal to support full legal equality for same-sex couples.
“When it comes to marriage equality, Labor has ignored reasoned arguments, human rights principles, overwhelming popular opinion and the heartfelt pleas of ordinary Australian families, but it can’t ignore concerned voters in key seats,” Furness said.
“We are sending Labor a strong message that there is a price to pay for pandering to religious bigots and for opposing the equal human rights of gay and lesbian Australians.”
The seat of Sydney has been held by Tanya Plibersek since 1998 and is considered to have one of the highest gay populations of any electorate in the nation.
“Given her electorate, Tanya Plibersek should be one of our strongest advocates but has chosen to rigidly toe the party line throughout her career,” Furness said.
“Senior Labor figures have told us they will only take marriage equality seriously when they see constituents taking it seriously enough to change their vote. We are now following that advice.”
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Either David doesn’t understand Australia’s voting system, or he’s deliberately trying to mislead people. By voting Green ahead of Labor, and putting Liberal last, you can’t possibly help Tony Abbott.
By voting Labor ahead of the Greens, you are helping Tony Abbott, because Labor supports his anti-equality stance.
Fine, cost them a few seats. Then see how well you can negotiate same-sex marriage under an Abbott government.
@James
I would love it if Tanya represented our community, but she represents the Labor party. To quote Tanya Plibersek before the last election: “Labor does not support changing the Marriage Act to allow same-sex marriage”.
If you feel she does support marriage equality then please engage her to come-out public with this support… We have tried… the only way left is to play their game and cost them a few seats before they take our equality seriously.
What an absolutely terrible idea to target Tanya’s seat. The Greens are only being taken seriously in seats like Tanya’s because the Liberal Party PREFERENCES THE GREENS TO SCREW OVER LABOR. So basically the greens could be elected to the parliament with as little as 25% of the primary vote, despite Tanya getting almost 45%, because the Libs preference the greens another 20-25% of the vote.
The AME are clearly in need of sound political advice. I am gay and in Tanya’s electorate. She is an outstanding local member who clearly supports gay rights + marriage but is bound by party policy when making public comments.
@Ben – Absolute lunacy, make the Greens block key bills unless Labor introduces Gay Marriage? That’s why we can’t trust the Greens in the Senate balance of power. They will just hold the gun to every piece of incremental reform because its “not progressive enough” for them, so as a result they will vote it down with the Libs and we will have no reform at all.
I love Tanya! Don’t target her seat or I’ll be out there counter door-knocking!
Rory – the Furness campaign is slyly aimed, excluding Liberal held seats like Wentworth which also has a very large gay and lesbian population.
And unlike the Labor party, where members like Tanya Plibersik are bound to party policy, Malcolm Turnbull is free to advocate against Liberal policy. He hasn’t…but no mention of flyers there.
Here is a challenge for the Furness.
Get the Greens to commit, if they hold the balance of power in the senate after the election, to refuse support for all but crucial bills unless Labor introduces reform.
The silence will only be broken by the sound of tap-dancing.
David, if “someone like Tanya Plibersek” represents the electorate with probably the highest number of gay, lesbian, trans and intersex people in the country and she still sticks to the vile “marriage is between a man and a woman” party line, then yes, she should bloody well have to fight for her seat.
Terrific. A someone like Tanya Plibersek has to fight for her seat against the Greens and open homophobes like Kevin Andrews and Tony Abbott will breeze in come election time without serious opposition. Maybe the Greens might like to target a few real enemies in this election.
Jason, at a federal election, you have to use all your preferences to make your vote valid. Therefore if you vote 1 for a Green or a supportive independent, and that person fails to get elected, your vote will then go to your 2nd pref, and if that person fails, to your 3rd pref. and so on. So all you need to do to make sure that your vote doesn’t go to a Liberal is to put the Liberal candidate last.
However, you should find out about all the candidates. Believe it or not, there are actually parties that are worse than the Liberals.
Spread the message. With preferential voting, there is no such thing as a wasted vote. Not enough people realise this, and some end up really wasting their vote by voting Labor when they don’t really want to.
Alex, this is not a tactic to get marriage, its a tactic to deliver a single seat to the Greens.
That won’t make Labor change on marriage.
Shift seats in the western suburbs – now your talking a language Labor wil recognise!
@Jason… you forgot about the party with the biggest swing to them in Sydney… the Greens!!!!
This action will not result in a liberal victory. Liberal Voters preference Greens over Labor, but greens voters preference Labor over the Liberals.
So if, as is expected, the Greens do better than the liberal party in the seat of Sydney, they get their preferences and have a real chance of winning the seat.
My concern is not so much placing flyers in the federal seat of Sydney which is a safe Labor seat, the real concern is placing flyers in an electorate that could go either way at the election because the problem is that GLBT people may decide to vote for an independent member and then a homophobic Liberal may win the seat because the GLBT votes went to an independent and not the current ALP member. I believe its better to have a gay friendly ALP member who does not support gay marriage compared to a Liberal member who does not really support any gay rights.
@Ben, Peter Furness has worked harder than anyone in the fight for same-sex marriage in the country. This campaign was designed by the whole AME National Committee made up of a great variety of hard working activists who all want equality.
@Merlot, Recent polling shows that in the seats of Melbourne, Sydney, and Grayndler the Greens have a real chance at taking the seat. If the issue that pushes the votes in that direction is same-sex marriage what a powerful message. Would you like us to just sit by and let them get away with discrimination because they are a big strong party…. and don’t worry we will be hitting more seats soon!
To quote Tanya Plibersek before the last election: “Labor does not support changing the Marriage Act to allow same-sex marriage”
This tactic could leave us looking completely impotent and irrelevant on election night!
Plibersek is a strong local member – her re election in the face of Peter Furness’ campaign would make the power of the gay and lesbian vote look utterly empty.
Finally, if as Furness states, Australian popular opinion is overwhelmingly behind gay marriage, than this campaign should be spread to the suburbs of Sydney where ordinary Mums and Dads can’t wait to punish Labor over its refusal to support same-sex marriage.
Is that the same Peter Furness who was on the national Executive of the Australian Democrats, but later quit the Democrats…to join the ALP!!
Good on AME.
It is time that we advertised where it hurts Labor. The Australian Christian Lobby does this. Even though it is setup by just three people they have the ear of Kevin Rudd.
When will the Prime Minister March in Mardi Gras. When will he go to Midsummer in Melbourne. More people are involved in these events then in all Australian Chruches combined. One thing we all hate is Door to Door Christians telling us how to live our lives.
Labor is presently moulded in the image of Sir Joe from Queensland. Only a stupid government would keep Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister.
Now many voters see Mr Rudd for who he is. A nasty Happy Clapper who has a massive turn over of staff. I guess the more people know about him, the less they like him and his filth. Even many Christians cannot stand his Evil. It is a bit rough when the Evangalicals start to call of Gay Marriage but the Happy Clapper Rudd says “There is no way on God’s Green Earth that I will allow this”.