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- March 30, 2006
Surprise ….Howard and Ruddock won’t cop gay marriage
It didn’t take long for Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock and now John Howard to tell the ACT Government to pull its head in over its proposed civil unions legislation - see my previous post.
Chief Minister Jon Stanhope was on the radio this morning, saying that Ruddock had written to him saying the federal government would move to overturn anything in the legislation that resembled marriage for practical purposes. Howard says the proposal is “marriage by another name”, and he would not allow it:
“We will always seek to remove areas of discrimination against homosexuals but there is a special place in Australian society for the institution of marriage as historically understood and we do not intend to allow that to be in any way undermined,”
As I said previously, I really fail to see how legal recognition of a gay couple’s relationship does in any way undermine marriage. Go on, objectors to civil unions, or gay marriage - please explain how it does indeed undermine the institution of marriage.
Stanhope, I think, hit the nail on the head when he said on the radio this morning that the federal government’s real agenda was that there is no place for homosexuals in John Howard’s Australia.
The other thing that really pisses me off about the federal government taking on the role of religious police is the way it threatens to use its power over territories to override ACT (and NT) laws it doesn’t like. The Feds gave us self government in 1989 for a variety of (many quite cynical) reasons … they should let the elected government get on without this sort of heavy handed interference. Now, I’m normally critical of Stanhope and co for pursuing social engineering experiments rather than doing the essentials of government they should be doing - providing excellent and efficient health, education and other government services, but having been elected by the people in the ACT, their legislative program shouldn’t be able to be blocked by the federal government because it doesn’t like what it sees. That is the right of ACT voters.
Technorati Tags: gay marriage, civil union, ACT self-government
2 Responses to “Surprise ….Howard and Ruddock won’t cop gay marriage”
I don’t care for the idea of gay marriage at all and not many who I know do. But after being with my same sex partner for nearly three decades, I reckon we are due full legal recogonition. The phrase ‘gay marriage’ is a favourite of the Canberra tories. They know full well how this goes down with voters.
By Andrew on Mar 30, 2006
John Howard is such a hypocrite. His attitudes on this matter reflect his superficially diligent church-going lifestyle, which is just a crock given his rumoured long-term ongoing extra-marital affair. He doesn’t seem to have a problem with undermining his own marriage.
By chosha on Apr 1, 2006