When it was announced earlier this year, it was hard to see the point of yet another Senate inquiry into same-sex marriage.
Even the Greens appeared to be slightly weary about opening up the debate again.
But the move appears to have paid off.
Lobby group Australian Marriage Equality is already claiming a landslide victory, saying some 45,000 Australians have registered their support for marriage equality. No formal figures have yet been released on the number of opposing submissions, but it’s understood the gays resoundingly won this round in the fight for equality.
AME spokesman Alex Greenwich said the 45,000 total is four times more than the number of pro-gay marriage submissions received in the 2009 marriage inquiry and four times more than the overall number of submissions received by the next largest Senate inquiry, the 1997 Northern Territory Euthanasia Bill.
Most of the submissions are most probably of the generic variety, however, the number is impressive nonetheless.
Of course, the process does give rise to some of society’s more bigoted views, but one of the positives has been to allow the voiceless a chance to have their say.
In the case of some members of the Shoppies union, it was a chance to counter the views of their leader Joe de Bruyn, a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage.
“Unions are meant to advocate for the rights of their workers, not against them — but this is exactly what the SDA does,” the SDA’s Duncan Hart submitted to the inquiry.
The inquiry also provoked the Catholic Church in Victoria into action, with Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart and five other bishops said to have sent out 80,000 letters over the weekend asking parishioners to take a last-minute stand against marriage equality.
As someone commented on our website, “I’d like to thank the Archbishop for reminding everyone the inquiry was on”.
On the other side of the coin, a letter from 20 multi-faith clergy from across Australia called for change.
Some criticism has been levelled at the one-dimensional push for same-sex marriage, but the mix of church leaders landing on separate sides of the debate shows there is a lot more to this issue.
It just goes to show, when sections of the community are at loggerheads, discussions are always worth having.
