Page 3557 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 22 October 2013
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He concludes:
It follows that the ACT bill is really a defective and dangerous product. If people want to get married under this law, the ACT government at least has the moral responsibility to inform them that they may be giving up the rights they have under Commonwealth or state laws as de factos, and that may mean financial or other disadvantage. The question then comes whether the ACT government has a moral responsibility to compensate them, or to help fund their legal costs, if its legislation is the source of their woes. It is all very well wanting to be progressive; but grown-up governments also need to act responsibly.
And that, Madam Speaker, is the crux of the objection that the opposition has to this legislation. This is not a responsible thing for the Assembly to be doing.
Only yesterday, it became apparent in an article in the Canberra Times that even supporters of the legislation did not think it was constitutionally valid. Quoting from the article:
Pro-marriage equality MPs and constitutional law experts have warned the ACT government its same-sex marriage laws could be struck down in the High Court if the bill is not amended.
Interstate MPs, including the NSW independent MP Alex Greenwich, have called on the government to reword the bill, after presenting legal advice that it could be invalid because it does not create a separate status of marriage for same-sex marriage.
Yesterday, with four minutes to spare before the deadline for amendments to be submitted, at the 11th hour, I received amendments from Simon Corbell to patch up these holes in the legislation. But I remind members that this is the legislation that he has been consistently insisting was constitutionally valid without amendments. This backflip gives me no confidence that these rushed fix-ups would make this legislation consistent with federal legislation.
Today’s front page Canberra Times article, “Rush to save gay marriage bill”, reports that gay marriage advocates and constitutional law experts are still arguing that this legislation has problems. Let me quote:
The ACT government has scrambled to amend its same-sex marriage bill in a last-minute bid to safeguard the historic law from being struck down by the High Court.
But marriage equality advocates were warning the government on Monday night—
that is last night, Madam Speaker—
that the bill was likely to be deemed unconstitutional unless further amendments were made.
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