Gay marriage news from Australia this week is all good. Another Cabinet minister has taken the Penny Wong approach – Tanya Plibersek (Minister for Human Services and MP for Sydney) has bided her time, undertaken a massive consultation with her inner city constituents and – surprise, surprise – found that they want equality and their reasons match her long-standing views on human rights and fairness. many will wonder why the hassle to reach such an obvious conclusion, but the political point is that Plibersek has now delivered a palatable model for all her colleagues to follow allowing them to come out publicly in favor of equality even when this is not party and government policy.
The deputy leader of the Conservative opposition, Julie Bishop, also looks to be heading down the same path. Despite voting to enshrine the current DOMA-like federal marriage inequality in 2004, bishop is now “open-minded” about change. it smells a little bit like the cat playing with the mouse. But it is more than we will ever get from the Opposition leader Tony Abbott so there is some reason to be grateful.
Meanwhile Australian Marriage Equality is out swinging with a new TV ad, to back up that of “Get Up”, and is cleverly arguing for civility and restraint in the debate on equality that will continue in 2011. It is clever because AME and others like this blog have always been civil, so it costs us nothing. But it may help to keep nasty opponents on a leash they would dearly love to be free of. perhaps now we can have the debate on its merits and free from the taint of silly associations between gay marriage and polygamy, bestiality, paedophilia and more.
