Labor’s Hyde to Introduce Second WA Marriage Bill

State Labor Member for Perth John Hyde has confirmed that he is preparing a Marriage Equality Bill to be introduced into WA’s Legislative Assembly. Hyde’s move comes a week after The Green’s MLC Lynn McLaren announced that she would introduce a state based marriage equality bill in the Legasitive Council.

Announcing the bill, John Hyde said,

‘I aim to progress a Private Member’s Bill that will have a real chance of support within the two major parties – Labor and Liberal in the Assembly where Government is formed.’

‘WA marriage equality advocates, particularly those with links to the Liberal Party, requested that WA MPs not launch State legislation unless Federal legislation was defeated.

‘I’ve honoured that agreement and my colleague in NSW Labor, Penny Sharpe MLC, has also waited until the result of the Federal vote to announce she is progressing a Bill in NSW.

‘It’s disappointing the WA Greens Party tried to undermine this week’s vote in Federal Parliament by announcing ill-formed WA upper house legislation while the rest of us were working to get support in the Federal Parliament.’

Mr Hyde said that as WA Labor is the biggest party in the WA Parliament he would consult with his Labor colleagues before formally introducing his Private Member’s Bill and to enable private consultations to continue with members of the Government coalition.

Equal Love WA, the advocacy group that campaigns for marriage equality welcomed the move. Spokesperson Sam Cavallaro told OUTinPerth, ‘I think it’s a positive step, state based legislation puts more pressure on the federal government. It’s important that we maintain the focus on federal parliament though or else we will have inequality from state to state.’

OIP Staff