NSW relationship register passed

NSW relationship register passed

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The NSW Government last night passed the NSW Relationship Register legislation, 62 votes to nine.

The  legislation means  same-sex and unmarried heterosexual couples will be registered with and recognised by NSW Births, Deaths and Marriages.

Debate started just after 9pm last night.

NSW Premier Kristina Keneally was not in the chamber for the vote. Another 20 members were also absent from the chamber when the legislation was put to the vote.

Openly gay NSW MLC Penny Sharpe said the passage of the legislation was another step forward for gay couples in NSW.

“The Relationship Register is another welcome reform for same sex couples in NSW,” she said.

“It is disappointing  that for such a basic piece of legislation Barry O’Farrell has had to pander to the religious right in the Liberal Party and allow a conscience vote.”

When asked about Premier Keneally’s absence from the chamber, Sharpe said: “No bill becomes a government bill without the Premier’s support.  What is more concerning is that nine Coalition members voted against and another 20 went missing during the vote.”

The legislation will now head to the NSW Upper House for debate where it is expected to pass with the support of the NSW Labor Party and the Greens.

The NSW Liberal Party has granted its members a conscience vote on the issue.

MORE TO COME

Read the background of the legisaltion

Libs get conscience vote

Register by year’s end

NSW to get relationship register

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13 responses to “NSW relationship register passed”

  1. Daniel:

    The ACT does not have civil unions.

    They have civil partnerships…much the same as Tasmania, Victoria and now NSW. Here is the 2009 legislation:

    http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/a/2008-14/default.asp

    While I agree we deserve public ceremony attached to recognition, we finally have equal legal and financial entitlements/responsibilities. Labor Governments may not move quickly enough…or go far enough for the community.

    But in Greg Smith we have someone who has declared war on us. He sees it as his Christian duty to fight gays and lesbians. And he will do that from the position of Attorney General.

    The Liberal party in NSW is a long way from the social conscience of John Brogden or modern managerial views of Nick Greiner.

  2. Ben;

    Kristina Keneally HAS NOT granted civil unions and is afraid to do so. Why is it that the ACT has introduced civil unions which only apply in that ‘state’ but do not apply if my partner and I were to go to Canberra to have one performed?

    The Labor party has abandoned gay men and women; on the one hand telling us all bout how much work they have done but as Merlot rightly points out, if you admit to having a same sex relationship, you will lose Commonwealth benefits because you will be declared a ‘couple’ but don’t ask to have any sort of ceremony attached to the union, that’s a no-no! How ridiculous to try and say same sex couples can have all forms of discrimination removed yet stops at the point where actual legal recognition would exist. Penny Wong and Albanese have sold out. Once vocal proponents of equality and same sex unions, they are now very quiet on the issue and do not respond to emails asking why they are not supporting it. It seems the lolly pop Kev 07 gave them has shut them up for good because they are thinking only of themselves and their careers instead of supporting the many heterosexual and same sex couples who put them there in the first place. Shame, shame, shame on a Labor government who has promised so much and delivered nothing but a bunch of laws which do everything but recognise in a legal sense. You worry about the liberals getting into power; well it looks like they are cut from the same cloth. They both hate Gays and their relationships.

  3. The Liberal Party is a Party of the Christian Right. To support this vilification is an abomination against all of Australia.

    As I see it Greg Smith is a danger to families and children. He has put their lives at risk.

    Greg Smith talks about eroding families by passing rights for families. Clearly vilifying families does not make a family strong.

    If you want to give families strength, you give it to all families. You do not hide in Parliament as a coward and seek to incite hate and violence, hoping some families will be killed.

    The Liberal Party must get rid of this person, or they are just as guilty of inciting hate and violence. They must all be treated as criminals by our community.

    We can nolonger stand idle while our brothers and sisters are bashed and killed due to hate crimes by the Liberal Party.

  4. What’s the point of registering to lose future social service benefits? Many long-term couples have deliberately ‘undone’ defing symbolisms in their relationships (sleep in separate bedrooms, etc) in order to maintain their single status benefits!

  5. Greg Smith, the Liberal’s proposed Attorney General implies that homophobes are the victims!

    Ugliness and sneering hate overlaid with sanctimony.

    He is not just any ratbag member of parliament – he will be introducing and changing laws that effect every gay and lesbian in this state.

    Barry O’Farrell, the likely next Premier, must move him out of that post.

    What a disgusting contrast Greg Smith is to Jeff Shaw.

  6. I thought modern day ISLAM was rooted in the 13th Century. Looks like the Christian Right is rooted eons BEFORE that, in the days of Leviticus. Rooted all right. Well and truly! The Liberal Party has come a long way in the past 30 years — a long way BACKWARDS. No wonder members have left it in droves! Myself included!

  7. Daniel and Kate:-

    Civil partnership are the limit of what a state Government -and Kristina Keneally – has power to do. Good on her for doing it.

    More importantly, we’ve just had war declared on us by Shadow Attorney General Greg Smith who be very likely be elected in ten months time.

    This guy wants to remove hard won reforms and rights…and as the NSW primary lawmaker, who is going to stop him?

    We should pay very close attention to the threat

  8. This small step is not nearly enough. Even though over 60% of Australians support same-sex marriage rights our parliamentary representatives are lagging behind. Come to the Marriage Equality Rally to fight for full legal equality this weekend – Sydney Town Hall 1pm this Saturday 15 May!

  9. What the hell is wrong with the Labor Party in this country. If the Labor governments of NZ, the UK, Canada and more forward thinking European governments can allow same sex marriage or civil unions what the hell are we doing living in the past in this country! Oh hang on this legislation is passed and the sky is falling in let me get some shelter before the pigs start dropping from the sky.
    too overdue and not enough. If the government wants to do all these things to recognise our relationships but stops at the very last point to recognise them via a civil union then are we ‘married’ in every sense of the word but this? Pathetic weak leaders who pander to so called community opinion. I wonder though which community they are listening too when its clearly the majority of Australians who couldnt care less either way if same sex couples could have civil unions or not. Hey helmet head – go the extra mile and grant civil unions.

  10. Thanks, Ben, for quoting Greg Smith. Talk about hyperbole. The Alamo? Derry? Sheesh!

  11. Actually, the register has not technically passed yet. It goes to the Upper House for debate today.

  12. Read the debate before the NSW Parliament – and the strident position of the Shadow Attorney General, Greg Smith.

    This is the man who would be number one lawmaker under an O’Farrell Government:

    “The passing of this bill will be another increment in the undermining and destruction of marriage and the traditional family…[it] will have an effect on the bastion of marriage that is akin to General Santa Anna’s troops surrounding the Alamo, starving out the defenders of an independent Texas.

    The supporters of marriage and the family feel like the occupants of strife-torn Derry during the troubles in Northern Ireland in the 1960s and 1970s”

    http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/hansart.nsf/V3Key/LA20100511056

    My God, the thought of a state Liberal Government has never been so scary.

  13. The establishment of a Relationship Register does not confer any rights or priveleges upon those who choose to register their relationship. At best it is but one type of evidence of a de facto relationship, where the definition includes about 8 different factors. If the relationship ends, the parties are entitled to seek a financial settlement under the Family Law Act, which they are entitled to seek if they were not registered. It’s just that being on a Relationship Register makes it hard to argue you were not in a de facto relationship. But thank you NSW parliament for meaning well.