I never thought I’d sound so cynical about the political process … but I can’t help feeling that one of the biggest problems in the gay marriage debate in Australia, my home country, is the number of politicians who lie or hide what they really think about the issue.
Like the 62 per cent of Australians who now say they support equality, and the 80 per cent who think there should be a free vote on the issue in Parliament, there are many politicians from all parties who agree.
But we don’t hear it. We just hear nonsense from our left-wing, atheist, childless, unmarried, female Prime Minister. Really – is there a set of political and lifestyle indicators more closely associated with supporting equality than Julia Gillard’s? Frankly, no. Never mind that 80 per cent of the people who voted for her support equality.
So what gives?
You tell me, because I can’t figure it out. Gay marriage is more popular than Julia Gillard is – by a long way. At least two and probably three of the five cross-bench Members of Parliament would vote for it. So she isn’t going to lose government or votes. And no one is even asking for her to lead the debate. They are just wanting her to authorise one. Kind of like a democracy, ya know.
Maybe we will have wait nine years for it – that’s how long it took to have a proper debate on the war in Afghanistan after all.
Things you can do in the meantime:
- register your support here at http://www.freevote.org.au/ for a ‘conscience vote’ on the issues in the Commonwealth Parliament
- support the Green party’s national legislation on marriage equality
- find a champion in Labor or Liberal who is willing to take a risk in being the ‘voice for gay marriage’ and rallying behind that individual as they build support and decontaminate this issue inside the Parliament
- push states to legislate
- push states to recognise marriages performed in other countries
A good week to you all.
Tags: Galaxy poll gay marriage, gay marriage australia, Greens gay marriage, Julia Gillard gay marriage, marriage equality, Penny Wong gay marriage, same sex marriage
Federal Labor has been a right-wing party since the Ruddslide, it’s just that no-one really noticed until fairly recently*…
…which means that, in short, economics is more important than human rights (c.f. Australia under John Howard). Political uncertainty breeds conservatism.
It’s now up to Bandt, Hanson-Young, Brown, etc to push the issue.
*hence The Greens’ fantastic showing at the last election. All hope is not yet lost.
I think a key challenge for us is that there is not a political champion of same-sex marriage in either major party.
The federal defacto recognition reforms were achieved by having political champions like Tanya Plibersek, Anthony Albanese and Malcom Turnbull push within their parties – it was the same with Age of Consent in the NSW Parliament.
I think you’re both right. It will take a continued high Greens vote to get Labor to realise there are political as well as human costs to their position.
But Labor is so parochial and places such value on internal loyalty that recognition of the political costs will only turn into action once there is an internal champion.
Peter Garrett would give that work its best public profile. Anthony Albanese would give this work its best internal chance (like the nearly successful 2009 party conference vote), and a Senator has the least to lose by taking action.
I think it might however take someone from a marginal or regional lower house electorate to take a stance. Maxine McKew would have been a good candidate. Kate Ellis would be brilliant too. And I think Tasmania could provide a range of possibilities… .. any other thoughts?