ALP rebukes MP over marriage
A senior Labor backbencher, who last week claimed same-sex marriage supporters in his party should join the Australian Greens, was formally censured by his own party last night.
The Lidcombe branch in the NSW electorate of Reid last night passed a motion in favour of marriage equality and called on MP John Murphy to acknowledge that he did not speak to the branch and his views are not representative of his electorate.
The Star Observer understands the motion was debated and passed while Murphy was present at the meeting.
The motion follows comments by Labor branch president in the Reid electorate Gina Wilson who said she was “appalled” by Murphy’s comments and lack of representation.
Wilson said last week she knew beyond a doubt that Murphy had sought neither the views of voters or ALP members in Reid, which includes the inner west suburbs of Concord, Strathfield, Burwood, Five Dock, Abbotsford and Drummoyne as well as Lidcombe and Auburn.
“There are many GLBTI people in the electorate of Reid and I know that he hasn’t broadly canvassed the electorate to find out what support there is or isn’t,” Wilson said.
“There has been absolutely no canvassing of ALP members in Reid on this. This is John Murphy’s off the cuff personal opinion and its devastating and insulting.”
Australian Marriage Equality (AM) convenor Alex Greenwich congratulated grass-roots ALP members in Reid for their courage in standing up for Labor values like equality and fairness.
“Labor Party members in John Murphy’s electorate are much closer to both the core values of the party and to mainstream opinion than Mr Murphy himself,” Mr Greenwich said.
“Polls show only 36 percent of people in Reid oppose same-sex marriages, while 74 percent of Labor voters support it nationally.
“The passing of this motion shows that the grassroots members of ALP will no longer put up with being mis-represented by those they elect. This message is especially timely ahead of the August 24 report back and the December National ALP Conference”
As well as telling ALP same-sex marriage supporters to join the Green, Murphy said the issue should be put to a referendum because he thought it would be lost.
Greens Senator Hanson-Young pointed out to Murphy that a referendum on the issue would be a waste of taxpayers money when all recent opinion polls had shown majority support on the issue.
“There is no constitutional change required to amend the Marriage Act, merely a legislative change, so an enormously expensive and cumbersome referendum isn’t needed,” Hanson-Young said.
“The community can have its voice heard in the Parliament if MPs and Senators are given a free vote and the freedom to vote for what their community wants, not their party bosses.”
“The Greens have long advocated MPs and senators having a conscience vote on this vital matter of allowing consenting adults to marry whomever they love, and again call on the leaders of the ALP and Coalition to allow it.”
nobody thinks about the affects Gay Marriage has on children! At the end of the day people tend to forget that we were actually created by ONE man and ONE woman and that is the most safe and protective union for a child as children are both impressionable and vulnerable. Too many children are used as an ideal or as an ornament. You see people carry them as a back pack, front pack and have become a modern day prada bag. Each and every one of us would not be here if it wasnt for a male and a female that created us.
Ed: so if same-sex marriage is legalised, everyone will turn gay?
About Iain:
Just for the record, this idiot is an ACL supporter. A hater. One of those who if God exist, would send him straight to Hell, as the Kingdom of Heaven would not be a place for his great Evil. He is well known troll who wants everyone to think he is some sort of God who they must follow. He says in many of his post that only he “knows”…….
Having family and friends who’ve lived in Lidcombe/Reid for a lifetime, John Murphy is sooo out of touch; Lidcombe might not be surry hills, but just counting conservatively the number of neighbours and friends in the area, I think there is enough to fill John Murphy’s entire electorial office only with standing space. I may just vote the Greens and ask them to do the same next time around… Be careful of what you wish Johnny.
So, Benson. For proof of the possibility of Biblical floods, I should look to… the Bible? Not sure whether you’ve the smarts to realise that that’s a recursive argument. As for my meeting Noah, if that’s who you meant by “Noha”? Unlikely, given questionable existence and at least a few thousand years since his alleged passing.
You’re quite welcome to believe in a 135 metre long boat able to accommodate a pair of every species on Earth, their turds and their food, for a year. Talking snakes and bushes. Demon-possessed swine. People being transmogrified into table condiments. Others, walking on or parting oceans. But for myself? If I want fantastic tales full of the impossible and the imaginary, I’ll pick up a JK Rowling novel: she makes no pretense of reality in her fairy tales. So please, accept that your faith is not for everyone and keep judgements to yourself.
Well all I can say is “Thank god I’m an atheist “, but since I don’t believe in any “gods” ( oh, except maybe my parking fairy, who kindly finds me a spot wherever I go) , I thank my humanity that I’m an atheist. But Benson ( is that how you spell it? ) I do respect your judicial right to believe in one, because after all, with an obvious lack of rudimentary education, humans do need some crutch to hang onto when they don’t believe in themselves enough or don’t understand facts very well, or are self homophobic. I seem to recall the vast number of self proclaimed ” christians” who turn their ignorance and hatred on to minority groups when they cant get their own way, especially GLBT people, when they are themselves gay. Do you hate yourself so much Benson that you have to pick on your own people? Hmmm. I don’t think I want you as part of my Tribe but hey, I WILL accept anyone regardless of religion,race,sexuality. Sad you and your kind don’t. I really hope your
Iife gets better. It must be terribly sad as it is.
Dave: I was wondering how long it would take you to jump on the Norway/Christian thing… You are so predictable.
Judging from his actions, the bloke was obviously not a Christian. The only evidence to suggest otherwise was a tiny footnote in a lengthy diatribe whereby he used the term to refer to his perceived demographic. To otherwise is to expose one’s tenuous theological understanding.
The Realist: I couldn’t agree more. How about the country invests some time and effort into something that matters for a change.
The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is of male rape- of not being polite to strangers, behaving like these fundamentalist. Leviticus, as it was written without the chapters, is about male prostitution in a temple.
My Anglican Bishop has told me the church never owned marriage. He said History will confine these fundamentalist to study in the same we study slavery.
I was recently reading a book on gay Samurai weddings. This debate we are having is with a few hate filled people who do not offer any historical facts, and try make stories up. They are living in fantasy land to say Christians and God created Marriage.
You do not have to support Marriage, some gay and straight people do not, but some are using this as a vehicle to hammer hate into GLBTI people.
When I was young, on the farm there were lesbian cows, just some. There was one gay rooster. There were always stories about gay animals. Later in life I learned about things like gay dolphins who get together with a female and have the young. From monkeys to swans, there are always some who are Same-Sex attracted.
Marriage used to belong to the couple getting married. There was often no man of religion around. You had a celebration with your partner and friends. Now we are in a situation where the government regulates marriage, and so there is conflict.
The proposition that Buddhist, or people who do not believe in a particular extreme version of Christianity, should have to follow it is abhorrent.
“Marriage is between man and woman, God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and steve”
“Adam and Eve” ? We live in 2011, 21. century, I refuse to believe that six billion people have their roots in two people whose children had to have sex with their own siblings and their children with their own siblings and so on, since there was only two of them. If this was the case the first human society would largely consist of mentally disabled individuals who would be unable to make tools to hunt and defend themselves, they would be annihilated by Predators and extremely hostile environment.
If people are so willing to justify incest on colossal scale, then I don’t see why homosexuality would be a problem.
Good lord Benson Kane, if you can’t spell and are useless at grammmar, you look like a dumbass.
Which obviously you are.
May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits.
To Geof
use vasoline stupid.
Is any one else a little perturbed that Benson spends ALL DAY posting to Gay and Lesbian forums on Gay and Lesbian websites?
Is it “research” Benson?… go one.. we won’t tell!
Looks like Benson spent too much time in Religion Class at school and way too little time in English class.
I don’t understand how people can support something as unnatural as gay marriage. It is completely against the natural order. It is not possible for a homosexual couple to reproduce. And if you allow gay marriage where does it end? Polygamy?
Ed: Mark, we’re not asking to marry more than one person at a time (or our pets for that matter, because that’s usually the next ‘reason’ trotted out) – we just want to marry that one person we love. Oh, and heterosexuals already practise polygamy – it is called the Mormon Church.
At Wilbur. We’d be a better country without your ignorance. Happy to help you pack…worm!
Its ok BK. We won’t insult you, we will just point out the fact that you are illiterate. Sea level rise by “imorality” – what the f@#% is that? And who is noha, and how do I get to meet him? And please tell all of us – is a ‘finansial desaster’ anything like a financial disaster?
Oh – and goodbye and good riddance Wilbur. Your only problem – what country would want you?
dear RMW thanks for all the nice insults that my email has atracted also from other emails,i expected just that. it just goes to prove my point, but if you don’t believe that sea level can raise because of imorality , then i suggest you ask noha if you ever get to meet him.
beside the end of the world this time it won’t be an act of God ,this time it’s mankind itself thats going to bring our own demise by nuclear war, those elements that you mentioned in your email are just some of the signs of the time.
and so is the finansial desaster on the horizon that we are facing.
“[more insults are very welcome]”thank you all
Looks like the Norway Christian Fundamentalist are here. Duck for cover as they spray you with hate and lies about the Bible! They will try and have you believe no other Christian or person can have a belief that is different from theirs, or form their own opinion about the scriptures, or the right to be free of another persons religious beliefs.
Millions of Christians around Australia support the rights of GLBTI people. These Norway style haters are alone and scared of the mess they are in. The community has turned against their hate and rejected the repulsive proposition of Evil they put forward for Australia.
The opposition to our civil rights is from a tiny minority of Norway style Christian Fundamentalist who try to deny the natural existence of homosexuality. They are but small bumps along the Yellow Brick Road and easily defeated with facts. Scientist can clone lesbian mice and gay fruit flies, but have not yet managed to cure us of some of these desperate haters. Not so long ago, they stood against the rights people of a different skin colour to have equality before the law, now they target GLBTI people.
To quote from a great man who understood discrimination:
“To penalise someone because of their sexual orientation is like what used to happen to us; to be penalised for something which we could do nothing [about] — our ethnicity, our race. I would find it quite unacceptable to condemn, persecute a minority that has already been persecuted.” Nobel Peace Prize winner and Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Hey Benson, heres an idea…….Grab a bible, stand in front of a mirror and preach to yourself because Im not listening mate.
Get a life and stay the heck out of mine please.
Yes, that’s right ‘The Realist”.
Why should we worry about people’s rights when house prices are decreasing? And we should completely ignore rights when we are war shouldn’t we?
Or – here’s a suggestion. Stop talking crap and just get on and fix this really simple issue. People want it. It hurts no-one. And it makes people equal under the law. Why would anyone have a problem with that?
I, for one, will leave Australia if gays and lesbians are allowed to marry. This isn’t about religion, its about filth and moral values. this world gets weirder every day.
The country is on the brink of financial ruin. We are locked into an unwinnable war on terror. The suicide rate among farmers and rural workers is at an all time high. House prices are spiraling downward at an alarming rate and there isnt a decent cook left on Masterchef.
And yet we are worried about marriage rights for 5% of the population?
Priorities children.
Sarah Hanson-Young from the greens recently gave this advice to those in same sex relationship for the upcoming census. Quote that the census form can be used to indicate relationship status. While there is no official option for indicating sexuality, couples can tick husband or wife, even if they are of the same gender End quote, anybody who would give advice like that is insane and suffers from of a distorted mind. Worse those that heed her advice
There is no point advising labour MP’s to join the Green’s – they are clearly one and same. In my view neither is fit to govern and a disgrace to this nation. My advise to John Murphy would be to get out of Labor.
Dear me, Benson. So climate scientists have it all wrong and sea levels are rising because of gay marriage? Famine, war and Middle East unrest are because your imaginary sky fairy is angry that some people in love are becoming able to express their commitment? Sorry, but that one doesn’t wash with me. In my world, science and sociology trump superstition and mythology, every time.
I don’t often resort to argumentum ad hominem, but in your case I’ll make an exception. Could you please learn some basic grammar and spelling – particularly the Biblical names you are referencing – before you climb up on to your pulpit? Because as it stands, you’ve left the distinct impression that you’re not the brightest bulb in the marquee, which undermines your authority somewhat. Take it elsewhere.
@benson kane
and your proof is??
God created man. God created love. Man created grammar. Man killed grammar. Logically, God should be allowed to kill what he created as well.
Save the world. Punctuate correctly.
@benson kane
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Benson, you are a dinosaur and a troll. That is all.
Yes dear Benson… and you should not wear clothes made of two different cloths either… And I hope you don’t let people with eye sight problems approach the lords table as well… These horrible blasphemies would also be contributing to the worlds problems….
Marrage is between man and woman, God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and steeve, this world have now become sodom and gomoragh, all over again, and those twin cities were destroyed with all their inhabitance by God, and lot’s wife turned into a pillar of salt because she didn’t obey the command from the angel of GOD not to look behind her as the two cities were being destroyed.
i totally agree with john murphy , those members of his party who agree with gay marrages should join the greens.
there is more than meets the eye what’s causing all these world problems ,and it’s not climate change.but human immorality like same sex marrages ,and anything goes in the name of dirty love, or lust more like it.