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Couples are not couples unless they can marry

By Rodney Croome - posted Wednesday, 15 April 2009


I fear it may seek a compromise, just as unsatisfactory as the current policy.

When the last Labor National Conference addressed the issue of formally-recognising same-sex relationships, it sweetened its rejection of same-sex marriage by endorsing “nationally-consistent state-based relationship recognition schemes” which, as I’ve noted, do not “mimic marriage”.

Our state civil union schemes are fine as far as they go. They have been credited as some of the most inclusive and egalitarian in the world, precisely because they are not limited to couples in marriage-like relationships and do not replicate marriage ceremonies. They are well suited to recognising a diverse range of partners and companions who can’t or don’t wish to marry.

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The political tragedy is that, because state civil union schemes have been endorsed by Labor to assuage the demand for same-sex marriage but were deliberately designed to fulfil quite different purposes, they have been unfairly equated to “dog registers”.

Compounding this is the fact that the NSW and WA Governments are opposed to any formal recognition of same-sex couples at all, shooting down any hope state schemes will cover the nation.

Given these problems with the current ALP policy, and the ever-growing demand for same-sex marriage, one possible line of retreat for Labor is to endorse a national civil union scheme that looks like marriage but isn’t.

Here I’m talking about a scheme that is limited to marriage-like relationships and has mandatory, legislated, wedding-like ceremonies, the kind of marriage-like (or as some say “marriage-lite”) scheme  that already exists in New Zealand and has been repeatedly quashed by the Federal Government in the ACT.

Endorsement of such a scheme is what the ALP’s gay and lesbian caucus, Rainbow Labor, is hoping for. In its submissions on the Party platform it has called for equality in marriage as well as civil unions that look like marriage. On the surface this is absurd. Why allow same-sex marriage and then establish a parallel national scheme that looks just like it? The answer is that Rainbow Labor is hedging its bets.

But if Labor endorsed a national marriage-like civil union scheme it would be faced with a whole new set of problems.

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It is not certain whether the Commonwealth has the power to establish a national marriage-like civil union scheme.

If its aim is to establish such a scheme in order to preserve marriage as a heterosexual institution it would certainly not use its constitutional marriage power.

The external affairs power is a weak basis because in those successful same-sex cases that have gone to the UN Human Rights Committee from Australia, the Committee has called on the Federal Government to give equality to same-sex de facto couples only, which it has already done.

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About the Author

Rodney Croome is a spokesperson for Equality Tasmania and national advocacy group, just.equal. He who was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2003 for his LGBTI advocacy.

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Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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