Page 5452 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 16 November 2011
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(1) supports marriage equality; and
(2) calls on the Commonwealth Parliament to amend the Commonwealth Marriage Act 1961 to provide for marriage equality.
I am very pleased to bring this motion on for debate today. Whilst the text of the motion is quite short in terms of the number of words, it is certainly no reflection on the significance of the subject or the importance it holds for many members of both the Canberra community and the community across Australia. Marriage equality is something I believe in and is a policy the Greens wholeheartedly support. Amending the Marriage Act to remove discriminatory aspects is about showing the respect that is owed to all loving couples regardless of their sexuality.
These are certainly exciting times for the equal marriage campaign. Poll after poll shows that the number of Australians that support the campaign is growing, and certainly it is reflected in the level of public discussion and, I think, the maturity of that public discussion on the part of many people. Certainly we saw in the Sydney Morning Herald this week that the most recent Nielsen poll shows that support for marriage equality is on the rise. The polling shows an increase in support in November 2011. Almost 62 per cent are now supporting marriage equality, and that is up from 57 per cent 12 months earlier. Similarly, the number who oppose it has fallen from 37 per cent to 31 per cent.
I think it is interesting, as we discuss this motion in the Assembly today to look to the federal parliament to take action, to look at the breakdown of the alignment of voters and their political affiliation. We see strong support amongst Green voters, with 86 per cent in support and just 10 per cent opposed. Amongst ALP voters, 71 per cent are in support and 22 per cent are opposed. And even amongst the Liberal-National Party voters, there is 50 per cent in support and 44 per cent opposed.
What this points to is that, whilst there are variations across the parties, this is not an issue for which there is an obvious party-political position. I think it is actually about Australians across the board recognising that it is time to end the discrimination that currently exists in the Marriage Act. When it comes to polling figures, in August this year News Ltd conducted a survey of 19,000 Australians, and seven out of 10 respondents supported equal marriage, a similar sort of figure in that very substantial polling in terms of the number of people that were surveyed.
In the context of this growing support, what the Greens hope to do by this motion today is to add the voice of the ACT Assembly to the ongoing campaign. If we pass this motion, we will join the Tasmanian lower house in supporting marriage equality by calling for federal legislative action. I understand that the government intend to support this motion. I believe there will be some amendments, and we will discuss them later, but I welcome that impending support.
It is always customary to talk about the details of the motion. As I say, it is not very long but I will reflect on those details. The motion proposes to do two things. Firstly, it calls on this Assembly to state its support for equal marriage. What we are asking for here is for members to give in-principle support to the concept. Secondly, the
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