Australia set to follow Ireland on same-sex marriage

Opposition party MPs in Australia hope to harness momentum from the Irish marriage equality referendum after proposing a law that would recognise same-sex marriages.

Tue, 02 Jun, 2015 - 01:00

Labour’s Bill Shorten became the first leader of a major Australian political party to back a bill to overturn a national ban on gay marriage.

Gay rights advocates fear government MPs will be reluctant to back the bill as it would be seen as a political victory for Shorten over prime minister Tony Abbott, a former Roman Catholic seminarian and a staunch opponent of marriage equality.

Shorten told parliament the law would not compel religious clerics to officiate at same-sex marriages.

He urged Abbott to allow MPs in his ruling Liberal Party a free vote, rather than require them to back the party’s line in opposing marriage equality. “Our laws should be a mirror reflecting our great and generous country and our free, inclusive society,” Shorten said.

His deputy, Tanya Plebersek, seconded the bill, after no government MP took up the offer to perform that official function as a gesture of bipartisanship support.

Abbott said his government was focused on Australia’s economic and national security rather than marriage law reform.

“Let’s see where the community debate goes. There’s a range of views on both sides of the issue,” he said..