The recently-announced marriage equality Senate inquiry gives supporters of reform an excellent opportunity to have our voices heard. A good submission is one that does several things. First, it is well informed. If you want to cite the level of support for marriage equality in Australia, or where equality has been enacted overseas, make sure ...
By Jacqui Tomlins, Melbourne-based marriage equality campaigner. Follow her blog here. Last week I went to a benefit for the former Baptist minister from Lilydale, Matt Glover. Some of you might have read about him in The Age at the end of last year. In November, Matt gave Rodney Croome (AME’s campaign director) a short statement ...
I want to add something to the list of things that Julia Gillard is lying about. It annoys me more than the carbon tax or the pokies. The lie is what she says about same-sex marriage. Officially her position is that she believes “marriage is between a man and a woman”. Continue reading … Share
IN THE wake of the Labor conference decision to support the lifting of restrictions on same-sex marriage, two private member’s Bills have been introduced to Federal Parliament. One Bill comes from the Greens’ Adam Bandt and the other, to similar effect, is sponsored by Labor’s Stephen Jones. It is to be hoped that the Bills ...
STEPHEN JONES MP: The Private Members Bill that I introduced into the Australian Parliament this week will end discrimination against same-sex couples who wish to have their relationship recognised by the state. In practical terms it will give same sex couples the same rights and obligations in their marriage as I have in mine. Continue ...
THE federal Labor backbencher Stephen Jones’s gay marriage bill faces a tough passage through Parliament. If passed, it will then face High Court scrutiny. Advocates of same-sex marriage must be prepared for a long fight. Jones’s bill is short and to the point. The law defines ”marriage” as ”the union of a man and a ...
There is a failure to learn from past mistakes when social issues arise. Religious organisations are at the forefront of opposing same-sex marriage, and like King Canute, they will get their feet wet when the tide comes in. In the end, inequality can be no match to the enduring passion of love. One of the ...
Lobbying carries its risks. In a meeting about marriage equality in parliament last week I was challenged to an arm wrestle by a well-known Coalition Senator who says he has defeated Joe Hockey and Tony Abbott despite being almost seventy. “Would it help if he beat me too?” I asked myself. Continue reading … Rodney ...
The bill calling for marriage equality is doomed to failure. A full parliamentary inquiry would allow the arguments to be considered openly and with reference to the evidence. If you want to achieve something but you know your strategy will fail, do you: (a) do it anyway, or (b) change your strategy? If you answered ...
As the bigots barricade wedded bliss, I am even happier to give it a miss. Not being a retired Australian tennis player, I’m hardly qualified to offer my opinion on same-sex marriage. But still, as a happily partnered, never-married man, I can’t stand idly by while self-appointed moral umpires make out that marriage is just ...