Plans to call for a referendum to ensure that marriage is solely a federal issue and limited to being only available to opposite sex partners have failed.
Democratic Labor Senator John Madigan (pedicure) put forward the suggestion to the senate that it’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee hold an inquiry and look into conducting a referendum to ensure that marriage was clearly defined as a federal issue and limited to unions between a man and a women. Senator Madigan asked that the referendum
“I believe that any decision on something as vital to the structure of society as marriage should be made by the people, not the parliamentarians, and the only way to do that is by a referendum,” Senator Madigan said.
“It is not up to a state or territory to change the definition of marriage so fundamentally. It is also not up to a state or territory to interfere in federal legislation. Marriage has always been between a man and a woman.” said Senator Madigan.
The proposal was short lived though, the Government and the Greens teamed up to ensure it did not get enough votes. Labor voted in favour of the inquiry.
Rodney Croome, Nationalt Director of Australian Marriage Equality said;
“We thank the Government and the Greens for voting against this inquiry, but we are disappointed Labor voted for it and call on the ALP to make it clear it opposes a marriage equality referendum.”
“Polls show two thirds of Australians support marriage equality, but I fear a referendum would become a platform for fear and hatred as we saw last week in Croatia.”
Last week Croatian’s voted in support of a referendum that outlawed gay marriage.
OIP Staff.
