Julia Gillard has declared she ‘got it wrong’ on marriage equality during her time as Australia’s Prime Minister.
In an interview on the ABC that aired earlier this week Gillard told actor David Wenham she regretted her stance against same-sex marriage.
“I, as a feminist, had always wanted to have a deeper debate about the role of marriage. I thought maybe this was the moment for the deeper debate, I got that wrong, I got incredibly wrong and I’m very happy to say that.
‘As the campaign for change grew stronger and stronger, and it became clear that the only debate to be had was marriage equality, then I was very happy to support marriage equality.” Gillard said.
Gillard was strongly opposed to marriage equality during her time as Prime Minister which spanned from 2010 until 2013. Two years after her retirement from politics she switched sides and voiced support. The laws were finally changed in 2017 following a national opinion survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The former PM has been criticised for failing to acknowledge that her stance was also probably linked to maintaining support from right-wing unions and their aligned Labor members.
Gillard said it was clearly a political issue, and at the time it was about what the parliament was prepared to do, but she made no mention of the role the support of the Shop, Distributive & Allied Employees’ Association (SDA) played in forming her position. The former PM has previously denied the need for her to keep the union on side had played a role in her opposition to marriage equality.
OIP Staff
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