There has been a lot of debate going on this week about marriage and civil unions.
In Queensland the Queensland Parliament passed the Civil Unions Bill.
In Sydney the ALP National Conference debated whether to change the ALP’s policy about marriage to allow for gay marriage. This was voted with 208 for the change to gay marriage and 184 against it as part of the ALP’s party policy. There is also a subsequent vote in the National Conference on whether to allow the vote on it in the Federal Parliament to be a conscience vote or strictly along party policy lines.
???What is the outcome of the ALP on the conscience vote???
The Australian Greens are strongly in favour of gay marriage and it has been one of their main party platforms that they have been pushing for.
The LNP’s party policy does not support gay marriage and they would be expected to vote on party lines in Federal Parliament against it. Thus if there is a vote on conscience in Federal Parliament it is likely that the gay marriage bill would be voted against because of the LNP and those ALP members who are against it as a matter of conscience.
We’ve been asking our elected representatives for here what position they are taking.
At a State level the two MPs for this area are Geoff Wilson and Murray Watt. Geoff Wilson voted against the QLD Civil Union Bill on conscience grounds and Murray Watt voted for it. It was passed. As far as we know it was never something that electors were given a chance to vote on – not an issue in the last election.
At the Federal level our House of Representative members are both LNP so would be expected to vote against a gay marriage bill federally. Our Queensland elected Senators federally come from three groupings: ALP LNP/Liberal/National Party and Australian Greens.
The ALP Senators are Senator Mark Furner (has indicated strong support for traditional marriage); Senator Claire Moore (has indicated strong support for gay marriage); Senator Joe Ludwig (still awaiting a reply); Senator John Hogg (still awaiting a reply); and Senator Jan McLucas(still awaiting a reply).
What do you think about gay marriage? How deeply have you thought through the issues. When you vote at the next elections will you take into account the position on this issue that is taken by the candidates and parties you are considering?