ALP women endorsed marriage equality last month at the National Labor Women’s Conference in Brisbane.

The conference called on the Australian Labor Party to change Labor’s platform and the Marriage Act 1961 ‘to allow for equal access to civil marriages, regardless of the gender of either partner’. Western Australian MLA Lisa Baker was at the Brisbane conference where the motion was passed. There was rigorous debate around the platform change, the Member for Maylands said, although all ALP women members who attended supported equality.

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‘I was hopeful it was one of the motions and I suppose I felt very pleased there was a motion to debate it,’ she said.

Prior to the conference, Baker was unaware of the motion. ALP National President and Queensland Premier Anna Bligh and Federal Minister for Women Kate Ellis both attended the conference. Australian Marriage Equality convenor Alex Greenwich welcomed the resolution saying marriage equality is a part of a long tradition of social and legal reform championed by Labor Women.

ACT Chief Minister and labor politician Katy Gallagher publicly supported same-sex marriage the same day as the motion was passed in Brisbane. WA Labor will be holding its state conference at the end of June.

Benn Dorrington

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