South Australia’s next Premier Jay Weatherill has reiterated his support for same-sex marriage following this week’s shock announcement Premier Mike Rann would step down.
At a media conference in Adelaide yesterday, Mr Weatherill said ‘I’ve always been a supporter of same-sex couple marriage’.
On Monday, the Premier said he would step down from the state’s top job after returning from a trip to India last week. Premier Rann announced he would resign in October to make way for Mr Weatherill and leave politics altogether early next year.
‘I’ve got a couple of months now to tidy things up and it’s not just the BHP Billiton there’s a few other projects that I’m very personally involved in trying to deliver to South Australia so I’m concentrating on that and then afterwards I’ll start looking for other things I can do,’ the Premier told the ABC.
Australian Marriage Equality spokesperson Peter Furness said Mr Weatherill joins almost all the other state Labor leaders in supporting same-sex marriage.
‘We welcome Mr Weatherill’s support for marriage equality, as will the majority of South Australians who support equality’, Mr Furness said.
Mr Weatherill joins Labor leaders in Queensland, NSW, Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania and the ACT who all support equality.’
Last year, a galaxy poll revealed 62 per cent of South Australians believed same-sex couples should be allowed to marry.
Benn Dorrington
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