|
Marriage equality advocates have vowed to make same-sex marriage an election issue following today's vote against the Greens' Marriage Equality Amendment Bill by Labor and the Coalition in the Senate.
Australian Marriage Equality National Convener, Alex Greenwich, said that the 60% of Australians who support same-sex marriage will be deeply disappointed by the defeat of the Bill.
"It is arrogant of Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott to ignore the 60% of Australians who, opinion polls show, support same-sex marriage", Mr Greenwich said.
"However, the fact that twenty six Senators were absent from today's debate is an indication that there is dissent in the ranks of the major parties, dissent which we believe will only grow."
"Because the leaders of the major parties are clearly deaf to the wishes of mainstream Australia we have no choice but to make this an election issue."
"We will be campaigning in key electorates to ensure voters are fully aware that the leaders of both major parties support discrimination against same-sex partners."
Mr Greenwich dismissed the contributions of Labor and Coalition Senators as spurious.
"Labor cannot claim to have removed discrimination against same-sex partners until it has removed all discrimination - there's no such thing as half equal."
"We reject the idea that relationship registers are a substitute for the full equality that comes with equality in marriage."
"The Coalition is wrong to say that marriage has only ever been between a man and a woman, because in a growing number of other countries it is also between same-sex partners without the dire consequences some people predict.
Today's vote was 45 to 5.
An opinion poll conducted by Galaxy and released in June last year found that 60% of Australians support same-sex marriage, including 64% of Labor voters and 50% of Coalition voters.
A Senate inquiry into the Marriage Equality Amendment Bill, conducted in the second half of last year, was the largest ever, receiving 11,000 submissions in support of the Bill.
|
