A little Liberal mumbo-jumbo

If you think the Opposition’s dastardly tactics in holding back superannuation reform for an inquiry were bad, get ready for this -“ there are even worse intentions floating around the Liberals’ party room.

Last Monday, Senators Mitch Fifield and Rod Kemp submitted a petition to parliament that called for the amending of the Marriage Act to invalidate Labor’s promised state-based relationship registries.

Tabled in the Senate on behalf of a whopping 81 people, it read, In 2004 the -¦ Parliament amended the Marriage Act -¦ to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life.

This reinforced the Biblical norm of heterosexual marriage, which has been the cornerstone of every civilisation since the beginning of humanity.

The word -˜marriage’ is thus appropriate only for legally united heterosexual couples who are able to model dual-parenting that is balanced (providing both father and mother role-models), natural (as to male-female physical union), and morally acceptable to God.

The establishing of relationship registers in the states and territories will inevitably expand the above definition of marriage into meaninglessness, and so compromise the purpose of the Marriage Act.

It’s this sort of rot that shows Liberal opposition to recognising our relationships is grounded in little more than religious mumbo jumbo and prejudice, no matter how politely they may phrase it, or how couched in terms of respect.

When they talk of us diluting the special place of marriage in Australian society what they really mean is polluting -“ like a cockroach in a bowl of soup.

Thankfully Kemp retires at the end of the month. But Fifield, a Costello faction fixer originally shoe-horned into a Senate vacancy in 2004, will be with us until at least 2014 after standing at the last election.

For those Liberal-voting gays and lesbians who still thought of Peter Costello as a promising alternative to Brendan Nelson, it will concern them that someone so close to the man would associate themselves publicly with a document that labels our relationships as unbalanced, unnatural and morally unacceptable by default.

Thank goodness there are others of a different mind in the party. Liberal Senator Sue Boyce managed to force a report-back date on the inquiry of 30 September, which otherwise could have gone on forever. However, actually crossing the floor would have made her the real hero of the hour.