Marriage showdown in 2012
The Labor Party’s loose collective of GLBTI members is confident same-sex couples will earn greater relationship recognition at the party’s next conference.
While Rainbow Labor failed to get everything it wanted at the three-day national conference, by playing by the rules senior figures in the faction believe the stage is set for a fairer marriage equality policy at the 2012 conference.
The GLBTI policy compromise -” which saw no movement on marriage or civil unions, but a Government undertaking to review relationship recognition for same-sex couples -” was the most contentious of the three-day conference.
Members of the party’s right faction were marched off the conference floor an hour before the amendment was to be introduced and ordered to pull their heads in and agree to the deal.
After 30 minutes of debate the right faction agreed and no public debate took place. Many from the left were disappointed they had been effectively gagged.
Senator Louise Pratt said many delegates -” from both left and right factions -” wanted to use the conference to speak in favour of relationship equality, but agreed progress had been made.
We should not be stigmatising families and I am pleased that we are removing from the platform the words that define marriage as between a man and a woman, she said. Why should children of same-sex parents have to grow up knowing that their family is viewed as a second class family?
Pratt was the group’s most prominent player, but is not its leader. It has no leader or factional alignment, which meant members could advocate for gay rights advances within their own groups.
For the first time the group included influential members of the party’s right faction, such as climate change minister Senator Penny Wong.
In a significant shift, the ALP added the sexual and reproductive health needs of the gay and gender diverse communities to its platform -” the party’s central policy document -” for the first time. The move could pave the way for federal research grants into GLBTI health issues.
It will now be easier for organisations like ACON to make a case for increased GLBT health, ACON CEO Stevie Clayton said.
This means more opportunities for us to seek funding to reduce the impact that alcohol and other drugs have on our community, to meet the growing demand for our counselling and mental health services and to improve our programs for lesbians and other same-sex attracted women.
OK Ben- so what’s your strategy, other than to keep feeding the dog that bites us?
Dave, you are wrong. Do some reading.
Rudd promised to remove – and has removed – more than 100 discriminatory acts to give recognition to same-sex couples. That included Superannuation laws.
Rudd also has consistently said he does not support same-sex marriage or civil unions. He has not changed or tricked anyone. And he needs to change that position!!
Finally, the Labor Conference committed to changing Commonwealth discrimination laws to include sexuality. Long, long overdue.
Andy, a strategy that gambles that somehow Australia will have a hung parliament is no strategy whatsoever. And Rob, changing two seats out of 150 only proves we are concentrated en masse in a pocket of Sydney.
No, we need a broader, smarter plan than that. This is not just about inner city Sydney.
We need to mobilise broad support across the spectrum, work with friends and allies to shift the undecided and engage the disinterested.
-œonce again the debate shrinks to a petty argument about who is elected in 2 out of 150 Federal seats.
It’s more than 2 seats that are a Greens v Labor contest now and it’s not petty if you get a situation where there’s a hung Parliament and the Government has to deal. With Steve Fielding out at the next election, the Greens will probably have an unshared balance of power in the Senate- imagine what they could get out of Rudd if they had the same in the House of Reps as well.
We have to judge Rudd by his actions. Not his words. So far his actions support Christian Hate groups, deny us discrimination protection, and sought to stop any debate about our rights before the Labor Conference. This is not to mention raping the dead GLTB by not allowing them to have there super go where they want.
Say no more. Others like to look at a white wall and say it is pink. I like to call the white wall white.
“once again the debate shrinks to a petty argument about who is elected in 2 out of 150 Federal seats.”
Incorrect, the debate comes down to gays and lesbians being enpowered. Plibersek and Albanese will not do anything publicly to support gays and lesbians, or push political agendas such as same-sex marriage, unless they believe their job is under threat. The same goes for most other “career” politicians.
As Albanese and Plibersek both have very safe Labor seats, it will take an en mass gay and lesbian voting block to get the message home to them – a voting block that has the power (because of ouw numbers in both their seats) to generate a sufficient swing to boot Labor out.
Rudd is currently brown nosing the fundamentalist christians, and the only thing that is going to get his attention is polls or votes going against Labor.
ACL is using the term “two people”
http://www.acl.org.au/nsw/browse.stw?article_id=27863
“Rudd is a Christian but he is not a funamentalist”. -True, he is not one himself, but he is controlled by them on this issue.
He is bow-towing to the demands of fundamentalists like evangelical lobby leader Jim Wallace. They bullied him into giving them “core election” promises (for this & future terms) that he is afraid to break.
It all amounts to the fact that Rudd might as well be a fundamentalist himself. He certainly should not be thier key note speaker at thier “hate conferences”.
He’s chosen the calculated move to back that horse instead of us, so we can choose not to blindly back him next time with first-class-cream primary votes.
I wish people took the time to inform themselves better before posting comments. Paul Mitchell, Rudd is a Christian but he is NOT a fundamentalist and further, he’s nothing, repeat NOTHING, like Margaret Thatcher. Go learn some history instead of being hysterical.
I wish people took the time to inform themselves better before posting comments. Paul Mitchell, Rudd is a Christian but he is NOT a funamentalist and further, he’s nothing, repeat NOTHING, like Margaret Thatcher. Go learn some history instead of being hysterical.
China has been debating Gay Marriage and it looks like it will be on the Agenda. The next Central Committee Meeting has 30 delegates committed to supporting Gay Marriage. It is hard to believe. China will most likely have Gay Marriage before we do. Now Muslim Albania does.
Come on Mr Rudd. Where the Bloody Hell are you!
I live in Robert McClelland’s Electorate. I have written to him expressing my support for the changes he made to eliminate the discrimination as outlined in the 1080 report. I also let him know that gay voters are in every electorate and watching to see what he and his Labor Government would do on gay marriage. I did not even get a reply.
Therefor my advice is vote Green and preference Labor.
Write your local member and tell them you are doing this and why.
I sent emails to all my fiends, gay and straight askign them to write submissions. sadly only 4 gays friends did, so i think we have to educate the gay taxpayers why they would need it…otherwise people think its a remote, romantic, idea…
Hi Guys
Its a sad reality. i made my small portest last week at my australian citizenship cermeony, when shaking the hand of mp pilbersek, i said “Thanks. But we want same sex marriage”she was scared LOL…
Really, we have to suport rainbow supoportive politicians, and find the right balance. Again , writing submission and making sure thta your fmaily and straight friends write ther hell out to mclelland, and nsw attorney general, and to rudd, and to everyone, is mrope important.
Do we have anyhtign to leanr from other coutnries like Canada, Spain, New Zealand, which were able to make it happen despite homophobic xstian fundamentalists?
Gawd, once again the debate shrinks to a petty argument about who is elected in 2 out of 150 Federal seats.
We need to raise and broaden our focus to win.
We need support from the enlightened in all parties*.
This fight won’t be won from the fringes. Whatever your voting, whatever your faith, get organised within them and get active.
(Yes, I’m including the National Party here…and will pray for the Christian Democrats to see the error of their ways)
Why I hate Federal Labor and Kevin Rudd.
I still do not have Equal Opportunity Protection. There is no talk of that every happening.
I still cannot give my supper to my parnter if I die. We have defacto status that means super companies can still discriminate. They have a good record doing just that.
If I am holidaying around Australia and have a car accident I cannot see my partner, as I am not “family”. He could not make important decisions about me.
I have to go to India to have children.
Kevin Rudd meets with hate groups and supports them. These are the people who say we are a cancer and should be eliminated from the world. They say we sex offend against children. He is helping them with a fundraiser. Go look at http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=28324
This is the group that told many lies about us, including just 2 percent of us do not cheat around, so we should not be allowed to get married. Kevin Rudd is showing us he is a moderate Klu Klux Klan type PM. He would go well in Alabamma.
I cannot get married to my partner of 9 years. What a load of shit it is from people who say we should support Labor who supports this! Oh its what we need is it? Idiots!
When I go to Mari Gras I do not see the Prime Minister addressing over three hundred thousand people. He feels much better with a hate group such the Australian Christian Lobby. They kill more people then any terrorist has done in Australia through inciting hate and violence.They are unAustralian and lack Morals. They are terrorist to me. When someone kills and mutilates a person who is gay, they complain the sentence is to harsh. Our PM actually supports these people.
I ask what has Kevin Rudd really done? Why does he meet and support hate groups that promote youth suicide, and lead to harm amongst us as a community? I will vote Green. I will never vote Labor while they deny my partner and I basic human rights. I will not let myself be abused by Labor, I will not let them lie to me again.
Lets have a look at what is going on.
Kevin Rudd had every opportunity to support us but even before the conference he was putting us down. He has the ratings and the numbers. The highest of any PM. He had the best oppurtunity to support us. He chose not to.
Next election nothing will change for us. The election after that Kevin Rudd will be under heat from the Liberals on everything, so he will continue doing nothing. The election after that Liberals will get in or be close. So we are looking at a 20 year time frame for any changes form Labor. No Federal Vilification laws for us. Nothing.
I am sorry I just do nolonger support Labor or Rudd. They lost me. At the 20/20 summit 99 percent of people supported gay marriage. For me it is not just about this, but the many things wrong with Rudd and Labor. I live in reality darlings.
Ben, I am not -œturning on our supporters such as Anthony Albanese or Tanya Plibersek … neither of them have provided any support to the gay and lesbian voters in their electorates for many many years. Both Albanese and Plibersek voted in favour of the “marriage ban” that redefined marriage to be only “between a man and a woman”.
I live in Plibersek’s electorate, and when I wrote to her prior to that vote and then again afterwards, all I got in response was a standard Labor party response “but it is our policy”.
Neither Plibersek or Albanese will do anything to help the gays and lesbians in their electorates because they both believe they are in safe Labor seats, and we homosexuals will just blindly vote Labor regardless.
Both are career politicians, from political households – and sorry, but they and their party deserve to be shown the door.
The way I see it is that we can have a Labor party or the Coaltion in federal government, yes I would love for the greens to have the power in government but they are simply too left wing for the hetrosexuals just like Family first is too far right wing to be in power. So the choice is – Do you want a Labor party which has removed discrimination or the Liberal party which when they were in parliament did virtually little for us ? I hate Rudds stance on gay marriage but I would rather have him in power than the Liberals. Most ministers in the left faction of the ALP support gay marriage, they are the key to gaining marriage rights though the ALP. This may be difficult but when it comes to federal election voting time, I suggest we only vote ALP left faction members or the Greens if your member is a right faction ALP member. Then once the left faction has control of the ALP then thats are best chance of same-sex marriage even if Rudd is still the prime minister. I would not go as far as saying the ALP has failed us, its this right faction causing the problems and we can attempt to remove them by electing as many left faction ALP members as possible.
“turning on our supporters such as Anthony Albanese or Tanya Plibersek”. I really don’t trust Anthony or his wife Carmel Tebbut (who stamped out anti-homophobia training in NSW schools). I think he just puts up with us, rather than supports us. I believe him that he’s not homophobic & generally supports the idea of equal marriage, but I don’t think he passionately goes out of his way to champion the gay cause if his position as Rudd’s right hand man is at risk.
Tanya- she ditched us by supporting the marriage ban in 2004 for the good of her career & hasn’t looked back since. Supporting the marriage ban did wonders for her climbing the ladder.
“It’s not what you want, but what you need”- yep, that’s what I’ll say to Labor when I vote for the Greens at the next election. With preferences, Labor will still win, but they will owe much of thier win to the Greens & they won’t be happy about it (with the Greens getting more & more of the balance of power, to the point of actually gaining decision making power)… “it’s not what they want, but it’s what they need”!! btw- I don’t think Anthony thought that one single quote would make it onto tv on all stations like it did!!!!!! …be careful what you say about us when showing your true colours!
yeah/yada-yada – we haven’t even fixed the centrelink problem yet!!!
Kevin Rudd is exactly like Margret Thatcher back in the 80’s in the UK – denying us gays rights yet again (oh did I mention Kevin Rudd is a fundamentalist Christian). So Kevin Rudd when are you going to give gay men and lesbians the right to marry their partner???? [the person they love] –
“Fair shack of the sauce bottle” for gays Rudd!!!!
He is certainly a friend of the ACL, but not us gays!!!!
Nice one Doug! I totally agree.
I have no doubts that Albanese and Plibersek and a number of other Labor MPs privately would like us to have been given full equality, yesterday, however we have to ask ourselves the question- what is the point of having them in the Parliament if they are unable to publicly contradict their party’s line without the risk of expulsion, or vote against that party line in Parliament without being given permission first (as in a conscience vote)?
The Greens Party already have full equality for us at a Federal and State level in their party platform, and even if they didn’t, Greens MPs can vote and speak from their own conscience without the above risks.
The fact is that the Labor Left faction are a minority within the ALP, and as long as that party’s rules gag them, they’re not going to be crossing the floor for us.
THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY HAVE FAILED OUR COMMUNITY
—–END OF STORY——-
Rob – we shouldn’t by turning on our supporters such as Anthony Albanese or Tanya Plibersek.
They are but two voices in the ALP – and they are voices that support us.
The battle for recognition needs support from people everywhere – in the Liberal party, in the National party, from Labor’s right and left, from the Greens, from religious figures.
A squabble over a solitary local member in an inner city won’t win us equality. Let’s build a coalition amongst all Australians.
You say Rudd doesn’t like us but he has made more changes for us than any other PM. Besides, it’s a two party prefered system. Who else are you going to vote for. I am fairly sure that Rudd is going to do a lot more for us then any of those Libs. Look at the ultra conservative Abbot for example.
You people cant make your mind up. We have been fighting for rights and when we finally get them, you complain because you lose $50 in your pension. You were bashing the Libs when they were in power saying that they were controlled by the churches and now you are doing the same with the ALP. I swear the majority of the people on the forum are a pack of whingie little bitches with nothing better to do than complain.
Suck it up. We want our rights and its going to take time and if that means loosing one or two things for the greater good than so be it but in the end we will be gaining so much more.
I find ti hard to believe that no-one is commenting on Anthony Albanese’s sanctimonious statement to that “sometimes you don’t get what you want, but you get what you need”!
What we “need” Albanese are politicians that have the guts to stand up for the rights of a minority and remove all forms of discrimination.
What we “need” Albanese are politicians that have the courage to speak out and criticise their party’s policies where such policies openly discriminate against a minority in favour of retaining the votes of bigots and homophobes.
What we “need” Albanese is not sanctimonious clap-trap, but politicians that stand-up for the rights of their voters.
Instead we get political cowards who are willing to see a section of society actively discriminated against, just so that they can continue their tax-payer funded lifestyle in the nation’s capital.
What I “want” is to be treated equally with every other Australian, regardless of their sexual orientation, sex, religion or race. Instead what I “get” is treated yet again as a second class citizen.
It is time that the voters of Albanese’s (Grayndler) and Plibersek’s (Sydney) electorate’s sent a message to their respective elected representatives, and let them know that their jobs are at the will of the voters and not their party.
Mr Rudd does not like us so what is the point of voting Labor. Your are talking about waiting more years for a remote possibility. Better by a lotto ticket instead and leave Australia. I am sure he would be much happier then.
He is siding with the Hate Group the Australian Christian Lobby that promoted harm and violence against us. He is even the keynote speaker for them later this year, when they will be discussing how bad homosexuals are for children. It is beyond belief he could support them. Kevin Rudd is the one you would not want around children. And what about our Equal Opportunity Cover? He still wants to discriminate against us. No change at all. And what about our Super? He gave us defacto status so super companies can still discriminate, unless we have a marriage certificate that is. It is up the individual trustee to accept our relationships. What about the Bill of Rights?
Go look at this link to see how he is helping the Australian Christian Lobby to raise money.
http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=28324
What about if you get a call that your partner is in hospital? You have to prove your relationship before you are treated as next of kin. We know how the AMA likes to treat us at the moment with new Catholic President.
Oh what a difference marriage makes.
“Shut up now and we’ll reward you later” ranks with “Your cheque’s in the post” and “I won’t come in your mouth” as one of the worlds three great lies.
There was no compromise, this is a phantom- zero was acheived.
How can a review be done when the outcome of the review is already decided. It was decided by Rudd that nothing now or in the future can even dare “mimick” marriage, as it will break a core Labor party election promise to 200,000 evangelical christians that the 2004 marriage ban be expanded in 2007 to ban the act of even “mimicking” marriage.
i.e. no way in hell will there be any ceremonies… at best you can just register like a dog.
This can already be done at a state level, so again, any compromise is a phantom. What we need is a renegade state to actually updrade thier state “registers” to “state marriage”, as a direct showdown to ChristianKevin, that would totally stump him (he can overule territories like A.C.T., but would have a huge fight to try & bully an entire state).