Sign the Senator’s petition in defence of marriage

Senator Barnett

Senator Barnett

 

Read the media release today from Senator Guy Barnett here, and

- download/

- print off /

- sign & circulate a copy of the Petition here.

FROM THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

LIBERAL senator Guy Barnett and the Australian Christian Lobby have urged the federal government to rule out allowing same-sex couples to marry.

The Australian Human Rights Commission told a Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday that it broadly supported gay marriage.

Commission president Catherine Branson suggested repealing the Marriage Act and replacing it with another form of relationship recognition legislation.

"We are not, pardon the pun, particularly wedded to the Marriage Act," she told the hearing, noting the primary concern was removing discrimination.

ACL director Jim Wallace says the commission's comments perpetuated the myth that denying homosexuals marriage was an issue of discrimination.

"Discrimination was removed when homosexual couples were given the same entitlements as opposite-sex de facto couples," he said in a statement, referring to 2008 federal legislative reforms.

Nobody, including "rights fundamentalists" at the commission, could present an argument for discrimination following these changes, he said.

"They should instead be seeking to protect the right of people of faith."

Senator Barnett said the Labor Party supported the definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman.

"I call on the attorney-general to rule out the option of repealing the Marriage Act," he said in a statement.

Federal MPs have been asked to canvass constituents' views on gay marriage, after a parliamentary motion from the Australian Greens.

The contentious issue will also be debated at the Australian Labor Party national conference in December.

 

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