[Greens-Media] Partial equality not enough, same sex couples should be able to marry, say Greens

[susan.pennicuik at parliament.vic.gov.au]

8 April 2008

Partial equality not enough, same sex couples should be able to marry, say
Greens

The Victorian Greens today moved amendments to the state Government’s
relationship register bill to allow same sex couples to hold a formal
ceremony to celebrate registration of their relationship.

'The Greens welcome this bill as an important step forward toward full
equality, which unhappily, we still do not have,' said Greens MP Sue
Pennicuik.

'The law continues to discriminate against same sex couples by offering
them a lesser level of recognition than marriage.'

'While marriage is within Federal jurisdiction and so the bill cannot
create a right to marry, we moved an amendment which would allow couples to
hold a formal ceremony in conjunction with the relationship register
registration if they want to.'

'We also proposed an amendment providing that only one person in the
relationship needs to reside in Victoria to be eligible for registration.'

'In response to pressure from the Greens, the Victorian Government has
promised to address the issue of mutual recognition of corresponding
schemes in state such as Tasmania.'

'Federal law reform is overdue and urgent. While Federal Labor is committed
to providing practical equality for same sex couples in areas such as
taxation, superannuation, social security and so on, they oppose gay
marriage.'

'This is regrettable. It is not good enough to only partially remove
discrimination, to make things a bit more equal but not fully equal. People
are equal and the law should reflect that and not be watered down to
appease groups who advocate for inequality.'

'State and Federal Labor governments should work together to introduce a
nationally consistent scheme to immediately purge all discriminatory
clauses from state and commonwealth legislation, including the Marriage
Act, so that same sex couples have all the same rights as heterosexual
couples.'

Further information: Sue Pennicuik 0407 000 270



Parliament of Victoria Notice: 

The information contained in this email  including any attachments, may be confidential and/or privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender and delete it from your system. Any unauthorised disclosure, copying or dissemination of all or part of this email, including any attachments, is not permitted. This email, including any attachments, should be dealt with in accordance with copyright and  privacy legislation. Except where otherwise stated, views expressed are those of the individual sender.