Gillard backs marriage conscience vote
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has formally backed a same-sex marriage conscience vote in what marriage equality advocates a labelling an attempt to “pre-empt the outcome of Labor’s National Conference”.
In an opinion piece in Melbourne’s The Age Gillard says the same-sex marriage debate “elicits strongly held personal views across society” and that, “given the personal nature of the issue and the deeply held beliefs, I believe that in future it is appropriate that a conscience vote flow to Labor parliamentarians.”
The move comes at the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government looks to follow Tasmania’s lead and endorse full marriage equality for same-sex couples.
Australian Marriage Equality national convenor Alex Greenwich said the Primie Minister is “at odds with the mainstream of the Party and public opinion” and “appears to be captive of the extreme right of the Labor Party led by union boss Joe De Bruyn”.
“A majority of Australians, and Labor members and voters, want the Prime Minister to lead the country towards equality, not support outcomes designed to scuttle progress.” Greenwich said.
Gillard sites the “meaning” and “standing” of marriage in Australian culture as her basis for opposition.
“Many will ask, what is my personal opinion and where do I stand in the debate? As I have said many times, I support maintaining the Marriage Act in its current form, and the government will not move legislation to change it. My position flows from my strong conviction that the institution of marriage has come to have a particular meaning and standing in our culture and nation and that should continue unchanged. The Labor Party platform currently reflects this view,” the Prime Minister writes.
“This is a debate I have not shirked from, and it is one the party will hold. What we must do when that debate is over is to respect each other’s point of view.”
Greenwich said these remarks will be viewed as hurtful and hypocritical to the many same-sex couples who want to marry.
“Same-sex couples and our families also want to celebrate the meaning of marriage, yet we are actively denied this by a Prime Minister who has chosen not to get married,” he said.
“The Labor Party has an historic opportunity to deliver marriage equality, and in doing so will prove they have returned to their core values of fairness and equality.
“Labor voted as a block in 2004 to help John Howard ban same-sex marriage. To win back the trust and confidence of the majority of Australians who now support reform, the Party must vote as a block to deliver equality.”
The Star Observer broke news of Gillard’s planned conscience vote announcement last month. A senior federal Labor Party source revealed the Prime Minister thought a conscience vote “would take the wind out of the sails of any decision made by the” ALP national conference in Sydney on December 3.
The source said Gillard knew she didn’t have the votes at conference to prevent marriage equality from being added to the ALP national platform, which would put her at odds with her own party on the issue.
The source was also concerned that having an issue like same-sex marriage decided by conscience vote would set a bad political precedent as conscience votes were usually reserved for life or death issues like abortion or therapeutic cloning, whereas marriage equality was an issue of policy.
A Herald/Nielson poll this morning shows two thirds of voters support legalising same-sex marriage, a 5 percentage point increase in support since the question was last asked a year ago.
The poll finds 31 percent oppose legalising same-sex marriage, a six-point drop on a year ago, when 37 percent were opposed. It also found 71 percent of Labor voters, 50 percent of Coalition voters and 86 percent of Greens voters are in support. Conversely, 22 percent of Labor voters, 44 percent of Coalition voters and 10 percent of Greens voters oppose legalising same-sex marriage.
Greenwich said the Prime Minister’s position would simply prolong a potentially divisive debate that many within her Party want resolved.
“The last thing Labor wants is for this to be an issue at the 2013 national conference, but that’s exactly what will happen if the Prime Minister gets her way,” he said.
“Those Australian families who are disadvantaged daily by this discrimination will keep on fighting for equality.
“By again refusing to support equality, the Prime Minister may have broken our hearts, but she has strengthened our resolve.”
Meanwhile, the ACT looks likely to become the second Australian state or territory to endorse marriage equality.
ACT Greens’ Justice spokesperson, Shane Rattenbury, will today table a motion in the Territory Assembly calling on the federal parliament to amend the Marriage Act to allow same-sex couples to marry.
“The ACT has led the country on the equal recognition of same-sex couples so it would be fitting for the ACT Assembly to endorse marriage equality,” Greenwich said.
“If the motion passes it will send a strong message to the rest of the nation that marriage equality is an important issue that the federal parliament must pass.”
In September the Tasmanian Parliament became the first in the nation to endorse marriage equality.
“We call on other state and territory parliaments to follow the lead of Tasmania and the ACT,” Greenwich said.
The ACT Legislative Assembly has previously supported ground-breaking civil union laws introduced by the territory’s governing Labor Party, which has also endorsed marriage equality.
The motion will be debated on Wednesday.
Gay Marriage would be a disaster !!!!
It would be a “field day” for any divorce lawyer.
Why would we want to mirror a failed concept??
It’s such a CONSERVATIVE demand from LGBT activists
Marriage is a fine institution…but who wants to live in an institution.
Have a Nice Day
@Richard.
There is no change for you. No one is forcing you to have – or attend – a same-sex marriage.
And while I don’t support a referendum (technically a plebiscite – like was done in the 70s about the national anthem), it would flush out the views of the loudest and most influential shock jocks (“….calling Gloriaaaaaa”)
Don’t worry about a conscience vote for any politicians on the subject of same sex marriage.
This parliament has no mandate to enforce this change upon us,by allowing same sex marriages for a minority group in Australia.
In my opinion the only fair way to decide the outcome is to put the subject of same sex marriage to a referendum at the next general election and the subject will be decided once and for all.
The politicians who deliver Same Sex Marriage to Australia are unknown at the moment. Some of them might be working in parliament now, but on the sidelines. The players in the ring will run their course, and be long gone by the time a bill is raised and passed. I am angry it won’t come now, but we lag an average of 15 years behind the UK on Same Sex legislation. Until then, go overseas and get a civil union. It’ll be recognised in the state of Tasmania, so if you have relationship assets that need legal protection, ‘bury’ them in the Apple Isle. Find happiness with the one you love, make a marriage of your own with the best legal status you can get, then get on with your lives, otherwise the haters really will have beaten you.
@dave – awwww I am blushing
@Malcolm – I’ve argued in favour of a conscience vote, so I wont repeat my arguments. However it does emphasise the need to shift the Liberal party on a conscience vote!
There are significant people – like Malcolm Turnbull – who must support a conscience vote in the Liberal party.
Why are they silent?
Folks you are all missing the MAIN GAME here.
Julia’s pathetic conscience vote will only apply WHEN legislation is put to the Legislative Assembly for passage to the Senate.
Neither of the major parties (Labor or Liberal) nor the rural minority party (National) will put a bill to allow us to become full citizens (because make no bones about it we ARE 2nd-class citizens) to the house in the first place.
The only party who are willing to put such a bill to the Legislative Assembly are the Greens. I suspect that there might be one or two members who would put it forward as a Private Member’s Bill.
Remember that the Government controls the legislative agenda and even if the Greens try to put a bill up for a vote or someone like Oakeshott tries it as a Private Member’s Bill, it will be sent to committee for so long that it will never see the light of day.
The game plan of both sides of politics (the centre right and the extreme right) is to not even have the matter come before the house.
Julia is playing an even nastier game than we are being led to believe. She and her troglodyte friends (De Bruyn, et. al.) are pretending that they allowing everyone to follow their conscience on the matter when all they are doing is saying, “IF it ever comes up for a vote then people can vote as their conscience allows.” While knowing full well that it will never come up for a vote while either of them or their fellow troglodytes sit in Parliament.
Its amazing how people will bash catholics when the majority of Labor party is a mix of athiest and alternative christian denomination. It was the catholics that helped de criminalise homosexuality in NSW.
@Ben
I do appreciate the good work people like you do in the Labor Party.
I have been at rallies to save Fairfield hospital where the State Labor Minister did save us from the Liberal Party. It is the Labor Party that was the first party to accept us as people and not criminals. It was the Labor Party, the progressive party, who led the way on so many issues on social justice. This perhaps, gets lost in our anger at Gillard and Rudd. They are killing the good work of leaders who went before them, of all the good people like you, and Dave in Canberra. The Liberal National party has always been strong advocate against many Civil Rights for people who are born into the GLBTI community. They are the Nanny State on so many issues. I just think as a whole, Labor has drifted to far down the Yellow Brick Road, and stopped at the Wicked Witches house, rather than take us all in search for Wizard of Oz. You’re friends need to continue helping the rest of us find Oz. It is the wickedness of the likes of the far right Catholic SDA, that is killing the once proud flame of hope in Labor. They are draining the party of voters.
There are people working their guts out for change in the Labor Party, and yes, I like others have been very bitter at times. These good people, like you, are deserving of our respect. It is the other lot, including Gillard who is not. And alas that is why I cannot vote for them, as I can only measure a policy on the outcomes, not what might have been.
I wanted so much for Labor to change on so many issues. The stories of older couples discriminated against in Nursing homes, the fact we are not included in the Federal Equal Opportunity Act, leads me to despair.
So I am man enough to say sorry to all those working for change in the Labor Party. I can see why Penny Wong took so long to come out on many issues, because she so loved her partner and wanted to protect her from the infamous hate rallies in the Great Hall of Parliament. Penny put herself and her partner at great physical risk for us, a sometimes thankless bunch. She is like all of us, very human, and has given a very human response. I could not imagine my beloved being the target of Christian hate groups. We can all live smugly, but some of us like Bob Brown and Penny Wong, are truly out there with their lives on the line for us.
For all those I say thank you.
Ah Kay?
And this would be ??? pollyanna reasonable Julia?
There are so many Julia’s I can’t keep up.
The Julia that lives ‘in sin’ with the hairdresser bf, who has a stripper stepdaughter from Tim who poses skimpy clad in lad magz.
Yah that really makes sense with the endless reminders about her conservative 10 pound pom upbringing in Adelaide.
You know that no one believes her on this issue (or ANY issue for that matter) of gay marriage because she’s SO CONSERVATIVE.
It’s so pathetic and laughable. I just hope she is rolled soon.
Dave (of 1.15pm) – that’s exactly my point – a change in policy is needed to precipitate a vote (conscience or otherwise).
Interesting how Gillard said at the press conference, that even if a conscience vote passed, she would not bring forward any change to the Marriage Act.
Labor is out of control.
I am so over Julia, as I was with Rudd! Both appalling and completely lacking in humanity! Both remind me of those old Russian Communist leaders all lined up for the parades outside the Kremlin. Ofcourse with Abbott and Truss, one is talking about the living dead!
As a gay man and a long time member of the ALP and someone who has written on this issue before but this was always going to be Gillard’s get out of jail card so we should not be one bit surprised that she has played it.
And while I oppose her solution to what for her is a political dilemma those who so frequently shout for and demand conscience votes should be the ones who are now carefully searching their consciences because such votes like referendums can go either way only by accepting the binding vote of caucus could we have been sure of final victory. Please don’t forget that even had we won on the floor of conference the vote would not have bound Federal MPs and Senators.
Frankly we were never going to win this time around and what’s more we won’t win until we get a PM (from either side of politics) who supports us and thus gives the nervous nellies of his or her party a real set of balls.
Despite knowing the outcome I will be at the March and the rally because that’s where I- we all must be to show our opposition to Gillard’s craven support of the Catholic Right of the ALP.
We also need to show our support for each other and the delegates to National Conference and those members of Federal caucus who must do the hard yards on the floor of conference and later in caucus knowing that they have been sold out yet again this time for De Bruyn’s 30 pieces of Vatican silver, the price of his support at Nat Executive and the next federal election.
Given some of Labor’s policies are very cruel, I think we should be able to argue about them.
The SSO – and most commentators – have missed the real story!
The conscience vote is not the main game – it’s the need to change the policy that restricts marriage between a man and a woman.
Gillard wants to retain the restrictive policy as is. Others in the Left and Right don’t.
How the vote is taken – block or conscience – is less important. And readers should be aware that a block vote wont get same-sex marriage through the parliament!
It’s more important to overturn the current restrictive policy. That seems to have been overlooked in the rush to argue about a conscience vote.
I hope Gillard realises that if this supposed conscience vote does not allow same sex marriage that the issue won’t be over. This is not an issue that should be voted on. Same sex marriage should be legal and it should be made so now!
Labor is imprisoned by the Catholic Right: as long as they remain in the party Labor will always sell out to Joe de Bruyn and his best mate Cardinal Pell, and be unable to fully support our right to be free and equal. The unspoken threat of another DLP paralyses them.
…. evangelical Australian Christian Lobby.
Anyway- our only hope is to maybe just keep voting Greens (even in the case of where you don’t agree with their other policies), to form a Labor govt under the thumb & balance of power of the Greens, until we are granted equal civil marriage, where we can walk into a registry office & get married like any other tax payer.
And get all your friends, family members, and supportive work collegues to vote Greens too, and come to the rallys, and the Mardi Gras parade.
We are too angry to say anything anymore.
Where is the next peak hour traffic bridge?
Gillard has been presented with an opportunity to be a forward thinking, ground breaking and socially just Prime Minister.
How disappointing then that she has been scared off by the scaremongering of the extreme right who seem to think the entire world should live by their beliefs. Beliefs I might add that are now in the minority not just in Australia, but the world over.
Australia’s first female prime minister, who chooses to ‘live in sin’, is nothing more than a hypocrite.
She may as well hand power over to Tony Abbot now – the woman and the Australian Labor Party is voter poison.
See you all outside the ALP Conference in Sydney on December 3 people – time to let Gillard and the ALP know exactly what we think of them.
Labor is poison. It is the forbidden fruit, the spoiled apple in the garden of Australian politics.
Gillard seeks to make the birth of some Australians a punishment, using the Bible as a basis, even though the vast majority of Christians in Australia, as the polls show us, strongly support equality. Gillard says Labor needs more members, as they are losing 5,000 people a year, but she discriminates against members, and only wants the Hillsong types. How extraordinary a Prime Minister calls for a conscience vote, then advocates against the outcome?
I will continue voting Green. Labor is a ruddy mess. They advocate against giving us the protection in the Federal Equal Opportunity Act, when we are old we can be discriminated against by health services, when we are young we can be denied jobs. In this land of plenty we are the forgotten people, destined to be treated as second class citizens by Labor. We pay equal taxes, we go war for Australia, some of us died for Australia, but in the end that does not matter to Labor, the only thing they care about is to keep up the discrimination. They have spent millions on that. They want a young child growing up only to know discrimination, only to know that some Australians are worth more then others.
I vote Green to end discrimination, as Labor will take 100 years to change. They are a party stuck in the past that wears the White Australia Policy as a badge of honour, having learnt nothing of the history of hate and discrimination that has been at the very heart of Labor since its foundation.
Our birth should never be treated by Labor as an excuse to discriminate and deny us Civil Rights.
Should we be expecting to see lots of “Ditch the Bitch” placards at the Dec 3rd rally, & at the next Mardi Gras?
This has been a good lesson for us not to presume that a Labor leader will automatically support us- Latham, Rudd, & Gillard were all “gotten to” by the evangelical Australian Lobby, covertly & swiftly forcing “core election promises” out of them not to support civil marriage, or even ANYTHING with a publicly visible ceremony component….. whilst the GLBT community just sat back giving each new Labor leader the benefit of the doubt they would support us- ie athiest woman in de-facto- surely she would support us, lets just sit back & do nothing… all the while she was being hog tied by the ACL lobby.
How can we believe anything that you say Gillard? Why should we trust your words?
You state “As Australia becomes one of the richest countries in the world, how can we ensure fair shares for all? How can we ensure that no one is left behind by accident of birth or circumstance?” .. yet then go on to contradict yourself by advocating a position that expressly ensures one section of society WILL be left behind, and WILL be excluded from a fair share.
Your discriminatory position is abhorent, especially from one who has personally benefited from progressive policies, especially from one who only has the job you do because of courageous people in the past who were willing to stand-up and be counted, to stand-up and face down those opposed to change, those opposed to equality.
You are, Prime Minister, nothing more than a weak willed coward!
All I can say to you is get yourself back into the kitchen, make your man happy, and keep your mouth shut – you are a disgrace to those who came before you, and won you the rights you now take advantage of.