FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
11 April 2005
Marriage Equality Proposed in Tasmania - AME Calls On All States to Follow
Australian Marriage
Equality (AME) has welcomed the introduction of
legislation into the Tasmanian Parliament by the
Tasmanian Greens to allow same-sex couples to marry.
AME National
Convenor, Luke Gahan, has called the proposed
Tasmanian legislation a "breath of fresh air" in the
wake of the federal marriage ban of August 2004.
“By amending the
federal marriage laws to only recognise marriages
between a man and a woman the Howard Government has
opened up the possibility of same-sex marriage
legislation for the states.
“Every cloud
certainly has a silver lining”, said Mr Gahan.
Following
constitutional and legal advice that after the
passing of the Marriage Amendment Act, states can
now enact same-sex marriage legislation, AME has
called on other states to follow Tasmania’s lead and
introduce similar legislation.
“Now that it is
possible for the state parliaments to enact same-sex
marriage legislation, we call on all state
governments to bring full equality into their laws”,
said Mr Gahan.
Same sex marriage
was legalised in the Netherlands in 2001 and has
since come into law in Belgium, the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, and the Canadian provinces and
territories of Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia,
Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland
and the Yukon.
Mr Gahan reports
that not only have many Australian couples now been
married legally overseas but that same-sex marriage
has been a success in each location that has made it
legal.
In October 2004 the
Tasmanian ALP unanimously passed a motion condemning
their federal party for supporting the Marriage
Amendment Act. They announced that "ALP Tasmania
dismisses arguments against same-sex marriage as
ridiculous and spurious".
“I call on
Tasmanian state Labor MPs to uphold their state
branch’s unanimous endorsement of same sex-marriage
in October 2004 by supporting this historic bill
before their State Parliament”, Mr Gahan said.
When the Senate
referred the federal Marriage Amendment Bill to a
Senate committee in 2004, AME hoped that this would
spark mature debate in Australia on the inclusion of
same-sex marriage into the nation’s culture.
“Rather than
allowing a mature debate to be held in the
community, the federal government passed their
marriage amendment without waiting for the findings
of the Senate committee.
“Now we have a
second chance and AME hopes that this time ordinary
Tasmanians and Australians will be able to debate
openly and maturely same-sex marriage”, said Mr
Gahan.
