Stop Dithering - Legalise Same Sex Marriage
Cassandra Pullos has a strong message for Australia’s politicians- stop dithering and make same sex marriage legal.
She says reports of political in-fighting with same sex marriage as a bargaining lever would anger Australians who believe we should have marriage equality now, as a significant number of other countries have already done.
Cassandra says the fact that same sex marriage was still not legal in Australia was discriminatory and we are lagging behind many nations that now have marriage equality.
New Zealand legalised same sex marriage in 2013 - the first Asia/ Pacific country to do so and Britain voted to make it legal in 2014. Internationally, laws making it legal for same sex couples to marry have been enacted in many countries as diverse as the United States, the Netherlands, Ireland, Argentina, Mexico, South Africa and Germany.
“Germany just recently voted for marriage equality after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said politicians could follow their own conscience rather than the party line on the issue.
“There was very little debate or fuss over the German vote, yet here in Australia same sex marriage is being used as a political weapon for party in-fighting while others continue to push some Victorian-era mindset about what constitutes marriage,” she says.
“If Germany and New Zealand can introduce marriage equality without drama, why can’t we?” Cassandra says.
It is ridiculous that a same sex couple could legally marry in New Zealand but their marriage is not recognised in Australia.
More than 760 million people in the world live in more than 22 countries which legally recognise same sex marriage. Against this background, Australia was lagging behind the rest of the world.
Cassandra does not feel there is a need for a national referendum on the issue.
“This is not a referendum issue, there is no requirement to change the Constitution to bring it in. Our elected representatives need to do the job we elected them to do and introduce the legislation into parliament and vote on it as our representatives as they do on every other piece of legislation.
“As with other pieces of legislation that have a moral element to them they should also be allowed a conscience vote and not be required to vote along party lines. If we had a plebiscite every time a difficult piece of legislation came before parliament the nation would come to a standstill.
“It’s simple, introduce the legislation, have the usual parliamentary debate followed by a parliamentary vote in which politicians in all parties are allowed a conscience vote rather than being required to vote along party lines. It needs to be done immediately,” Cassandra says.
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