Double petition push for marriage

Australian Marriage Equality has launched two parliamentary petitions to remind politicians the demand for same-sex marriage isn’t going away.

AME national convenor Peter Furness said they were hoping for 10,000 signatures to start, and the petitions -” one to the Senate and one to the House of Representatives -” would be separate from submissions to the current Senate committee inquiry into marriage equality.

-œMany of the submissions are marked confidential, can only be read by members of the committee and other senators. It doesn’t affect the members of the House of Representatives. This petition can go directly to those MPs, Furness told Southern Star.

-œEven though the submissions can be small, some people aren’t comfortable writing a submission, but they’ll sign a petition. This is another way for people to make a direct connection to their politicians.

-œPetitions can be a continual reminder. You can lodge your [initial] signatures in Parliament, then a month later you can lodge some more. It’s a mechanism by which you can constantly raise an issue.

Opponents of same-sex marriage have had a petition running since 2004, lodging small batches of signatures several times a year, which were then tabled by senators and MPs.

-œIf we put our minds to it, we can beat them in terms of numbers and the rate in which we hand them in. It also gives an opportunity to MPs to express their support for equal marriage by tabling them and sometimes speaking to it, Furness said.

info: AME’s petitions can be downloaded from www.australianmarriageequality.org.au/petition.htm but must be printed and filled out by hand. AME has asked for the initial signatures to be mailed to them by September 30.