Professor George Williams
The debate in Australia continues to bubble away. National legislation is back in the national parliament, thanks to the Greens. Julia Gillard, the Prime Minister, is being as contradictory as ever. And Tasmania has definitely, 100%, legislated to recognise overseas gay marriages.
This article by one of Australia’s leading (and certainly most progressive) constitutional expert, Professor George Williams, is good food for thought.
It’s not that no-one has thought of this before, it’s just that the first ‘state’ to try it wasn’t really a state. The Australian Capital Territory, home of the national capital Canberra, has reduced powers, much like the District of Columbia is not an American state. So when the Australian Capital Territory voted to bring in marriage equality the then right-wing national government vetoed it (read here the personal story of the Minister leading that campaign - Andrew Barr)
What Professor Williams is saying is that the national government probably couldn’t do that do a fully-empowered state, even if it wanted to.
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