AUSSIE GOVERNMENT REJECTS CIVIL UNIONS
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has rejected a proposal to allow civil unions between same-sex partners in Australia.
According to a government spokesperson, the decision “reflects the widely held view in the community that marriage is between a man and a woman”.
However, Australian Marriage Equality spokesman Peter Furness argued that most citizens support gay marriage. “Opinion polls consistently show that a majority of Australians support same-sex marriage, making a nonsense of the Government’s stated belief that its policy ‘reflects a widely held view in the community’.”
According to the Sydney Star Observer, the Government did confirm that it still intends to recognise and support same-sex families through its community and social inclusion strategies and implement relationship registers.
“One step towards eliminating discrimination against same-sex couples is for their relationships to be legally recognised,” the response states.
“As part of the Government’s same-sex law reforms, registered relationships will also be recognised in many Commonwealth laws to provide a more consistent approach to the recognition of relationships.”
Sad. It is sad that in a modern first world country like Australia that has one of the biggest “pride” parades in the world, the Sydney Mardi Gras, that attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists every year, and in a country that are on a whole, one of the most gay-friendly places in the world, their leaders can still not get as far as allowing all citizens the same rights. In that sense, we are extremely lucky
Pathetic. I live in Aus. It’s a sad day for us with this news. its so pathetic!