Libs and Dems push SA rights

A member of the South Australian Liberal Party will team up with the Democrats to introduce a bill giving same-sex couples in SA legal recognition under state law.

SA is the only state in Australia which doesn’t afford same-sex couples the same legal status as heterosexual de factos. The Labor government promised to make such changes in 2002 but never did.

Liberal MP Michelle Lensink said she was fed up with the delays and would team up with Democrats MP Sandra Kanck to introduce a private members bill if the government didn’t present its own legislation next week, The Australian reported.

Last November the upper house passed the government’s Relationships Bill, which was to give same-sex couples de facto rights, but both Labor and Liberals in the lower house agreed to shelve the bill and it lapsed.

Lensink said her bill would be the same as the one that lapsed and expected it to pass the upper house.

The government claimed it would reintroduce its own bill in coming months.