Page 3430 - Week 11 - Thursday, 19 September 2013
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This bill asserts that the right to equality and the right to protection from discrimination under section 8 of the ACT Human Rights Act require the removal of barriers to a civil marriage, even in circumstances where other discriminations, such as financial or parentage, have already been removed.
Often those opposed to this reform will assert that because other forms of discrimination have been removed there is no need to extend the concept of marriage to same-sex couples. To this, we say, in the words of Justice LaForme of the Ontario Supreme Court:
Any “alternative” to marriage … simply offers the insult of formal equivalency without the … promise of substantive equality.
This bill asserts clearly and unambiguously that all people are entitled to respect, dignity, the right to participate in society and to receive the full protection of the law regardless of their sexual orientation. The introduction of this law is a response to the broad support across our community for the implementation of a legal framework for same-sex marriage.
There is a clear support for full and equal recognition of same-sex relationships. The Australian Council of Human Rights Agencies, or ACHRA, has highlighted that the absence of a right to civil marriage for same-sex couples continues to:
… reinforce the different value placed on relationships between opposite sex and same-sex couples.
The government agrees with ACHRA’s statement that:
… the principle of equality therefore requires that any formal relationship recognition available under law to opposite-sex couples should also be available to same-sex couples. This includes civil marriage.
The Marriage Equality Bill 2013 substantially draws upon other bills presented in other state and territory legislatures, particularly the New South Wales State Marriage Equality Bill, which is similar in structure and provision to the commonwealth Marriage Act 1961. The bill replicates certain regulatory provisions from the Civil Unions Act 2012 to ensure its operational consistency and effective implementation. The bill will repeal the Civil Unions Act and transfer provisions dealing with the ending of a civil union to the Domestic Relationships Act 1994.
The bill will apply to all marriages between two adults that are not marriages within the meaning of the commonwealth act and which are solemnised here in the ACT. A person will be eligible to marry under this act only if they are an adult, they are not married, they cannot marry their proposed spouse under the commonwealth act because that marriage would not be a marriage within the meaning of that act, and they do not have a prohibited relationship with their proposed spouse.
Marriages under the act will begin in the same way as other marriages—with a notice of intention to marry, accompanied by evidence of identity and age given to an authorised marriage celebrant. Marriages under the Marriage Equality Act will be
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