December showdown looming
The Australian Labor Party (ALP) is poised for a marriage equality showdown at its national conference in December, after its Australian Capital Territory (ACT) branch backed access to marriage for same-sex couples at the weekend.
The ACT motion endorsed “the legal right of all adult couples in Australia to be married if they so choose, and for that marriage to be recognised and registered by law in Australia, regardless of sexual orientation, or gender, of the parties to the marriage”.
In addition, the motion dismissed civil unions as an alternative as they “do not deliver the same legal security and social recognition as marriage and that a relationship recognition scheme that is separate from marriage would continue to make members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer community second class citizens.”
The motion also called for the outcome of the national conference vote in December to be “a binding vote for members of the federal parliamentary party, and that there not be a conscience vote on this issue”.
Similar motions have been passed by the South Australian, Victorian, Tasmanian, Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australian branches of the ALP, as well as the ALP Women’s Conference.
Only the right-wing controlled NSW ALP branch referred the motion on to December.
Every state ALP leader, including ALP national president Anna Bligh, has publicly backed same-sex marriage, with the exception of South Australia’s Mike Rann.
ACT Deputy Chief Minister Andrew Barr (pictured) said more than 90 percent of delegates supported the motion following an hour’s debate.
“There were really only a handful of people dissenting so it was a fairly broad statement from the ACT branch and, from what I’ve heard about the other state and territory conferences around the country, this was the strongest level of endorsement for change so far,” Barr said.
A lone delegate from the conservative Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association spoke against the motion, attempting to block debate by moving a number of procedural motions.
Barr was also elected a delegate to the national conference, where he has pledged to champion the issue. He said six of the ACT’s conference delegates were already on the record in their support for marriage equality.
The motion at the conference is the first, to the Star Observer’s knowledge, to explicitly reject civil unions.
“These state and territory-based civil unions or civil partnership schemes have been important in that they have been an advance on no recognition at all, but that ultimately isn’t the preferred outcome and this matter does have to be dealt with at a national level with one scheme for everyone and that’s marriage,” Barr said.
The vote by ACT Labor comes three weeks before federal MPs report back to the parliament on their consultations with constituents on the issue.
Oliver sorry I do not roll out the red carpet to fundamentalist haters like yourself.
It is not my views you oppose, it the reality of discrimination that effects people. And on the subject of your beloved Catholic Church, while it holds the official line that people like who are GLBTI are against the Natural order of things, and carries out acts of hate and vilification against good and decent Australians, then I will hold it to account.
Dave, why do you feel the need to bully people on line? why bring up previous comments? You get all defensive when somebody opposes your views! It seems as though nobody can get a word in edge wise! I could bring up many of your posts that slanders catholics and Jews and your crying out of homophobia every time someone has an opinion, I could bring up those posts but really dont have the time, stop standing over people and let them post!
…. Further “Oliver” has only ever worked for hotels catering, but then again he changes what he says he does a bit.
https://starobserver.com.au/news/australia-news/new-south-wales-news/2011/05/25/gay-hate-gathering-for-sydney/52879#comments
Sadly, “Oliver” is a collision of hate and religion. In his many post, he abuses GLBTI people. He has said we are all high on drugs, we are not tolerant people, he has supported the haters, who likens us to the Gestapo, he has supported just about any loopy evangelical who has abused us, and at times supported people who have killed us over the victim because of course they “deserved it”. He will usually imply he is Catholic, a Liberal Party supporter, and gay in his post. He also stalks people craving their attention. I simply cannot take him seriously after all this.
I wont be voting Green by the way!
I disagree Dave. If sexuality was a barrier to employment in many jobs, then all Gays out there would be unemployed! I havent been out of work for 24 years of my whole working life.
Hi Dave,
In Victoria, there is no such protection, as the Victorian Government stripped us of protections from the Equal Opportunity Act, if we are working in faith based organizations who run essential government services, such as disability services, youth services, outreach support, and most community sector run services. You now have lie about your sexuality to get the job as they can openly discriminate. These are the jobs where they feed you in a soup kitchen, and were they look after you when you can no longer look after yourself. There was a large protest on the steps of parliament about this, but the Liberal Government still went ahead.
There are thousands of people who work in these areas. Often religious businesses have a monopoly, as for years in Victoria the government has been outsourcing jobs to the faith based sectors.
For More:
http://australianpoliticstv.org/2011/06/07/dont-wind-back-the-clock-on-equal-opportunity/
https://starobserver.com.au/news/2011/06/02/baillieu-government-strips-equal-opportunities-protections/53633
So no matter how hard you study, or how much experience you have, your sexuality is now a barrier to employment in many jobs.
Cheers,
Dave
Why does marriage have to be this hard!? ;-)
Hi Dave,
I don’t know what you mean when you say “We can be sacked at thousands of government funded jobs for our existence” and “Older members of our community can still be excluded from Nursing homes”.
Sexual orientation is a protected attribute under the Fair Work Act, so I don’t know why you think you can just be sacked for being gay without recourse.
Ed: most nursing homes in Australia are owned by religious groups who are exempt from Australia’s state and territory anti-discrimination laws. You are correct that sexual orientation is protected in terms of employment under Federal law but that is the only area in which it is protected.
My apologies for the pessimism following:
If marriage equality does become written in stone at the ALP federal conference, sadly all Gillard has to do is call for a conscience vote in parliament rather than one where all ALP members have to vote along party lines. If this happens then it will not pass. The LNP will get in at the next election and many of us older gays won’t see marriage equality in our lifetimes.
Marriage Equality? The Labor Party still excludes us from the Federal Equal Opportunity Act and has no plans to stop their homophobia anytime soon. We can be sacked at thousands of government funded jobs for our existence. Older members of our community can still be excluded from Nursing homes. Gillard has the numbers, the Greens want us protected, and all Gillard can do is tell us to look up the lessons in the Bible!
And we are asked to hold our breath and hope again, on just one issue? I know there are people working hard in Labor for Change, but it is a broken party. It allows Catholic Unions like the SDA to have more say over ordinary members who might have put a lifetime of service into the party. It is taking millions form the SDA and telling us to fuck off.
I will continue voting Green and get married in New York.
How many decades will it take before both major parties stop discriminating, not just in Marriage, but all areas of our life? 5 or 10? Even the Liberal Government in Victoria just ripped out the State Protections at work we had in the State Equal Opportunity Act.