Marriage equality ad in Australia

[Gob]

The Labor Party has voted resoundingly to change its policy to one of supporting gay marriage.

But federal MPs will not be forced to support gay marriage when the issue comes before Parliament next year because the party also voted to endorse a conscience vote for its politicians.

The votes were held this morning after passionate debate for and against the changes at the ALP national conference in Sydney.
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The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, had called for a conscience vote and personally moved the amendment backing this.

Had this been defeated, Ms Gillard’s leadership would have suffered a serious blow. She dodged a bullet when the conscience vote was endorsed by 208 votes to 184.

Support to change the platform to one of explicit support for gay marriage was much stronger and some see this as a defeat for the Prime Minister.

She has not publicly opposed a platform change but she does oppose changes to the Marriage Act which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

The platform change endorsed today says ‘‘Labor will amend the Marriage Act to ensure equal access to marriage under statute for all adult couples irrespective of sex who have a mutual commitment to a shared life’’.

The amendments to the platform also exclude the churches and other religious organisations from having to marry gay people if they do not want to.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/labor-ba ... z1fQjBRu00

[Scooter]

So in other words, no chance in hell of getting through Parliament. The Coalition and their defectors will vote en masse against it, and now so will some Labour MPs.

[alice]

I just thought that was a really cool imaginative way to get around the legal impediments to recognizing same-sex partners as family.

In Australian Commonwealth Law, same-sex families are actually recognised as family for most purposes. There have been progressive reforms to Commonwealth/Federal Laws over the years. I have included a link which is the website of the Attorney General's Department and provides more detail, and from the link, the summary is that ... ,

[The reforms have a significant impact in the following areas:
• Tax
• Superannuation
• Defined Benefits Superannuation
• Social Security and Family Assistance
• PBS Safety Net and the Medicare Safety Net
• Aged Care
• Child Support
• Immigration
• Citizenship
• Veterans’ Affairs

Here is the link: http://www.ag.gov.au/samesexreform

That's what makes the Commonwealth/Federal stance regarding marriage even more ridiculous - because in most other areas any legislative discrimination on the basis of same sex relations has been removed.

Separately to the areas governed by Federal Law, there is still some discrepancy in other areas that are under State legislations.
I'm not fully up to date on the State Laws. I work in Federal Govt and am therefore always more aware of the Federal Legislations and their effects - especially of course in the areas that it affects my work.
And separately, I live in Victoria and therefore am a little more up to date on their State Laws than I am with other states.
Regarding Victoria, I have provided a link to a Victorian Law handbook, and the following summary is from the link:

At a state level, in December 2008 Victoria passed the Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 2008 (Vic) ("ARTA") to remove discrimination in relation to accessing in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) and artificial insemination (AI) services and to secure the legal status of children with same-sex parents. In particular, the ARTA replaced the Infertility Act 1995 (Vic) and amended both the Status of Children Act 1974 (Vic) ("SoCA") and Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1996 (Vic) ("BDMR Act").
Domestic relationships - Victoria
The Victorian SLAR Act (and the subsequent SLFAR Act) changed a range of state Acts to introduce the legal concept of "domestic relationship". The objects of the Act are:
 to recognise the rights and obligations of partners in domestic relationships where there is mutual commitment to an intimate personal relationship and shared life as a couple, irrespective of the gender of each partner; and
 to prevent discrimination under legislation specified in the Schedules by ensuring that all couples irrespective of gender have the same rights and obligations while at the same time recognising the importance of a commitment to a long-term relationship and the security of children.
Approximately 55 Acts were amended, mainly concerning property, inheritance, stamp duty, compensation schemes, superannuation, health, guardianship, employment, criminal and consumer laws. All amended statutes took effect by July 2002. The amendments introduced the legal concept of domestic relationship, defined either narrowly or broadly depending on the particular obligation or benefit listed in the SLAR Act Schedules 1 to 7.
The narrow or principal definition of domestic relationship is "a person to whom the person is not married but with whom the person is living as a couple in a genuine domestic basis irrespective of gender".

Discrimination
Discrimination on the grounds of "gender identity", "lawful sexual activity" and "marital status" is prohibited under Victorian law. As a result of the SLAR Act "marital status" now includes being a "domestic partner" for the purposes of the Equal Opportunity Act 1995 (Vic) ("EO Act"). The definition of "relative" also extends to certain family members of a person's domestic partner.

So, the Victorian Government recognises same sex relationships for areas such as stated above, and then of course follows Federal Law where required which recognises other areas, and the total package covers nearly every area ... but not quite.
For example (from the link I provided below), Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Western Australia (WA) and Tasmania (Tas) allow same sex couples to adopt, Victoria (Vic) currently doesn't but is/was changing their legislation, and South Australia (SA), Queensland (Qld) and Northern Territory (NT) did not allow it - I don't know if they have reforms in process. (this is all as at the time of publication of the Law handbook that I've linked to).
Victoria is in the middle of amending the Adoption Act to allow it, but it doesn't seem to be in place yet,if the handbook I've linked to is reflective of the most current reforms/State legislation.
Here is the link: http://www.lawhandbook.org.au/handbook/ch05s03s01.php

Australia, in Law, seems to be overwhelmingly supportive of same sex relationships ... except in a couple of 'little' areas, like actually allowing marriage. Given the same sex non discrimination laws in place and reforms in place etc, it can only be a matter of time before any other barriers are removed and they are considered equal in all areas, and marriage is allowed. Public opinion is strongly 'for' it, and it seems to be only the politicians and political parties themselves that are dithering about these last steps in the path of change.



edited to try to tidy up my wording a bit