Same-Sex Union Group Urges Labor Not to Play Politics
Gay union advocates have called on the Australian Labor Party on Monday to consider right timing before any member of the ruling party officially introduces private member's bill supporting same-sex marriage.
The whole issue is not about politics anymore, the Australian Marriage Equality (AME) said.
It is understood that Labor MP Stephen Jones is leaning towards the introduction of such bill to the Parliament on February following the ALP's decision in December to support conscience vote on the matter.
However, Labor's take on the contentious issue, which was reached during the party's national conference last month, is expected to encounter stringent opposition from the Coalition.
It is best then, according to AME, for Jones to wait out until it becomes clear that a similar conscience vote commitment could be mustered from significant numbers of Liberal and National MPs.
AME national convenor Alex Greenwich is convinced that the Coalition can be won over despite pronouncements earlier made by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott that his Liberal Party will not support such measures.
Officially, the Coalition will work to kill any proposal to allow same-sex union in Australia's Marriage Act, Abbott said, but opposition members, he allowed, can rise up and vote basing on what their heart dictates.
He warned though that such act will have repercussions, including the likelihood that shadow ministers will have to resign from their posts.
Still, Greenwich is optimistic that Coalition members will support the proposed legislation given the proper timing.
"The coalition is only just beginning to properly debate this issue and to rush it into a vote early in the year will only antagonise those coalition MPs who might otherwise support reform," the AME representative told the Australian Associated Press (AAP).
He warned that any gains achieved by lobby groups at this time could be lost if politics prevail.
"If Labor's intention is play politics with our lives by introducing a bill prematurely, then the ALP remains as much a hurdle to reform as the coalition and is doing exactly what it always accuses the Greens of, pulling a stunt," Greenwich stressed in an official statement issued by AME.
AME is banking on Abbott's declaration that individual Coalition members would not be stopped in using their conscience once the voting phase over the proposed legislation sets in.