By Andrew L. Urban.
1 – Voters are looking forward to Labour’s Shadow Attorney General becoming more familiar with the law. Marriage ‘equality’ as far as equality at law is concerned was achieved decades ago, as the Shadow Attorney General should know. Same sex unions are treated as de facto unions under Federal law in all areas, from tax and social security to veterans affairs. Exactly as married couples are. So when he says (The Australian, August 14, 2017) in support of same sex marriage, “This is about giving LGBTI couples equality before the law. Nothing more, nothing less,” either he has forgotten the law (bad), doesn’t know the law (very bad), or is deliberately misleading people (very, very bad).
There is no further equality available – unless we refer to the ‘badging’ of a relationship. But of course same sex couples are able to refer to themselves as married now, if they wish to, without breaking any laws.
2 – Voters are looking forward to seeing and hearing Labour members publicly campaign for same sex marriage in electorates with high concentrations of Muslim voters. And we are looking forward to hearing what protections will be sought by Muslim businesses etc if SSM ‘badging’ becomes legally sanctioned. And of course, voters are looking forward to seeing the breakdown of the votes in these electorates, and how those results affect the overall vote.
3 – Voters are especially keen to hear undertakings from all supporters of same sex marriage that they will refrain from verbally abusing those with opposite views in this debate (avoiding words they have been using like bigot and homophobe in particular), before, during and after the postal survey. Yes, of course, voters expect that this undertaking would also apply to opponents of SSM (avoiding any disparaging words, like poofter).