Grass roots activist organisation GetUp recently collected over 25,000 signatures on a petition asking the for the federal government to follow the recommendations of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) report and grant de facto status to same sex couples. GetUp, submitted the petition to the Federal Member for Leichhardt, the Hon. Warren Entsch, who then presented the petition to Prime Minister John Howard.
GetUp spokesman Brett Solomon told OUTinPerth, ‘Warren Entsch has been a strong advocate within the Liberal Party for same-sex equality. We wanted to strengthen his arm internally within the Coalition to say not only is this the right thing to do, but this is what the Australian people want. Here’s a petition of 26,000 people to prove it.’
Shortly after the petition was presented to the Prime Minister, Cabinet deferred indefinitely on following through on the reforms recommended in the HREOC reports.
Hon. Warren Entsch, however, ‘is hopeful that Cabinet will sit on it again, and more than hopeful of a positive outcome.’
Mr Solomon disagreed, arguing that a decision from the Prime Minister is needed now. He said ‘Within the Cabinet, there is a group of people who support it and a group of people who are in opposition. The Prime Minister should make a very clear statement to the Australian people prior to the election about where he stands. Does he believe there should be discrimination against gays and lesbians or does he believe there should be equality? If he believes in equality, then he must declare to the Australian people prior to the election that he will redefine de facto to include same sex couples.’
