This afternoon I reintroduced my Marriage (Equality) Amendment Bill into the Senate.

The Bill seeks to remove discrimination from the Marriage Act and give same-sex couples the right to marry.

The Greens believe that same-sex couples should have the same rights as heterosexual couples to celebrate their love and commitment through marriage. A majority of Australians support this.

Countries including Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, Spain, South Africa, Mexico and many states in the United States now recognise same-sex marriage. The sky hasn’t fallen in there and we know it won’t here in Australia.

While Ms Gillard and Mr Abbott may be against marriage equality, a majority of the Australian community are not. Their representatives should have the chance to reflect this by voting according to their conscience, instead of party-lines. The right to marry someone we love is far too important to sweep under the carpet or hide behind outdated party politics.

Download this petition calling on Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott to give the members of the Labor and Liberal parties a conscience vote on marriage equality.

Attachment	Date	Size
Same-sex_marriage_conscience_vote_petition.pdf	29/09/10 11:06 am	30.77 KB