The debate over exactly what kind of legal recognition GLBTIQ relationships should and will have has received a considerable amount of attention in the last few weeks.
At the Standing Committee of Attorneys General (SCAG) meeting on April 16 and 17 Federal Attorney General, Robert McClelland urged his state counterparts to implement the Labor Party’s same-sex relationships register policy.
The ALP National Platform policy maintains that partnership registers, like those existent in Tasmania and the ACT and Victoria, should be a state responsibility.
However, spokesperson for the Australian Coalition for Equality, Rod Swift, believes that while state based relationship registers do have a place, they can be impractical due to jurisdictional differences.
‘A national register removes inconsistencies between states. It’s more practical to have one law rather than a possible eight different laws.’
Spokesperson for Australian Marriage Equality, Alex Greenwich, says that relationship registers play an important role but they are not a substitute for marriage.
‘Some people are anti-marriage and that’s fine, but it’s about options- we should all have the right to choose,’ he said.
‘The register should be (and is) open to both heterosexual and homosexual people, but then so should marriage.’
Meanwhile, the Rudd government has rejected a key proposal by the Australia 2020 Summit to introduce same-sex civil unions, sticking to its well worn line that marriage should only be between a man and a woman.
In an official statement, the government says that ‘the most appropriate way to achieve relationship recognition is by the development of nationally consistent, state-based relationship registers.’
Whether they will be able to achieve that consistency and whether all states will comply remains to be seen.
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