Poland to beat Australia on marriage equality
One of the most homophobic countries in Europe is set to leave Australia in the dust on the path to marriage equality by providing gays and lesbians with the documentation they need to marry overseas.
Like Australia, Poland bans same-sex marriage, but this month its Minister for Equality, Elzbieta Radziszewska, announced she would seek to allow authorities to provide same-sex couples with the documentation they needed to marry abroad.
The Federal Government was advised to lift its ban on issuing documentation to same-sex couples by a Senate inquiry in 2009, but has so far failed to act.
Australian Marriage Equality (AME) national convenor Alex Greenwich called the ban “mean spirited” and said marriage advocates would be fighting it in the courts.
“Despite a positive recommendation from the Senate inquiry, no action has been taken and the situation continues to grow worse as more countries have allowed same-sex couples to marry in the meantime,” Greenwich said.
He said AME would be taking the fight to the courts on the issue in 2011.
“AME is working with legal academics to see what avenues exist for overturning the Government’s policy,” Greenwich said, “We will be taking legal action on this year but it is an area which would be very easy for the Gillard Government to take action on.”
“This is something that Julia Gillard could give the GLBT community while debate is postponed to the ALP national conference. If she wants to take action she can overturn the current policy on issuing documents and follow that Senate inquiry recommendation”
A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) told the Star Observer that it was prevented from providing documentation to same-sex couples under the Marriage Act.
“It is not DFAT policy, but Australian law, which only permits the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade or an Australian Embassy overseas to issue a Certificate of No Impediment to Marriage if the proposed marriage is to be recognised as valid under Australian law,” the spokesman said.
“The Commonwealth Marriage Act 1961 defines marriage as being between a man and a woman. Under the Marriage Act, a same-sex union solemnised in a foreign country is not recognised as a marriage.”
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This is great – go Poland ! As a dual Polish-Australian citizen, it’s good to know I will be able to get the relevant documents I need to marry overseas. As far as I am aware, to marry in another country you need to have a No Impediment to Marriage certificate from whichever country issues the passport you travel on (ie. if I want to marry in Canada, and enter Canada on my Polish passport, I require that document from the Polish Government and the Australian Government has no say as I’m not in Canada as an Australian citizen). My parents came to Australia in the early 1980s (before I was born here) to escape Communism, because they didn’t have freedom in Poland, and wanted their children to be free. Now I’m turning to Poland to give me the freedom to marry overseas. How ironic, and how very sad for Australia.
Yes Marco- this is a little known fact.. that the equality-phobic Labor party even BLOCKS couples from getting married OVERSEAS in countries where it IS legal!!!
This is blatant paranoid homophobia by Labor thought police- banning what we do while we are in other countries!!!
If Labor also block ceremonies in the UK when they start soon, then why have the Union Jack on our flag? ….maybe replace it with a Swastika?
When I married my Australian Husband in sweden the australian embassy said that it didn’t issue “Certificates of No Impediment” but the guy in the consular office was happy, when asked, to issue a Consular Document which said Australia didn’t issue “No Impediments” and that and a Formal Declaration saying he was single, my husband not the consul tho’ the consul was nice too,(witnessed and stamped by the same Consul!) and that was fine for the swedish authorities.
The Australian goverment refused the required paper work for my now husband to marry me in Spain. In these exact words: ‘we cannot allow this to happen’. The Spanish conulate allowed my partner use documentation used by the state (NSW) as alternative. Even though this is normally not allowed. We finnally got married in Spain. So the the gorverment here: It is only a matter of time!! We will have our way.
You have the same problem with being able to do civil unions overseas as well. We tried to do a French PACS while in France and you need to have the same certificate as the one required for gay marriages abroad but the Australian embassy in France refuses to issue one. As a consquence it can’t even to a French PACS (civil union)
“It is not DFAT policy, but Australian law, which only permits the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade or an Australian Embassy overseas to issue a Certificate of No Impediment to Marriage if the proposed marriage is to be recognised as valid under Australian law”
This is total nonsense and I think the senat dismissed this as nonsense – they’ve got it totally mixed up, the certificate is only to show that you are single in Australia and can go ahead and do a foreing civil union or marriage, it has nothing to do with the fact Australia doesn’t recognise it.
Australia should start recognising foreign civil unions etc and then perhaps foreign countries will start recognising Australian ones…only Tasmanian ones have some status abroad…
By the way there is an Australia petition out in government on this problem right at the moment!