Labor pours cold water on Greens amendments to same-sex marriage bill
Labor has moved to shut down attempts to amend the cross-party same-sex marriage bill by the Greens, warning the bill is a compromise that should be adhered to to pass marriage equality.
Greens amendments, circulated on Monday evening, propose removing the provision that allows existing civil celebrants to become religious marriage celebrants and refuse to solemnise marriages on the basis of their personal religious belief.
The Greens want to add a clause that the marriage law is not intended to exclude or limit state or territory anti-discrimination laws. They also want to remove exemptions to the Sex Discrimination Act for religious bodies to refuse goods and services “in regards to marriage” because believe they replicate existing provisions.
Labor resolved in October that the cross-party bill, authored by the Liberal senator Dean Smith, already “strikes an acceptable compromise” between marriage equality and religious freedoms and to push for the bill to be passed in its current form as quickly as possible.
In Senate debate on Monday, the Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, said that his party would engage in the parliamentary debate in “good faith” but would “never support any legislation” that did not reflect the principles of fairness, respect and non-discrimination.
Despite signalling the desire for amendments, the Greens have little bargaining power to insist on them, since Di Natale conceded in comments to Guardian Australia earlier in November that the party would “not do anything to jeopardise” marriage equality if its amendments were not accepted.
The Labor senator Anne Urquhart told the Senate that an “ideal bill” would simply remove the provision that marriage is between a man and a woman.
“But I’m willing to compromise and willing to accept the further amendments,” she said in reference to the other provisions of the crossparty bill. “I’m not prepared to see this bill fail through attempts from either side to create a bill that those in the middle cannot support.”
The shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, met the Greens’ LGBTI spokeswoman, Janet Rice, on Monday evening.
Asked about Labor’s position before the meeting, the party’s LGBTI spokeswoman, Terri Butler, and a spokeswoman for Dreyfus reiterated the caucus position is
that the Smith bill is an acceptable compromise.
The Equality Campaign co-chair Anna Brown said: “We strongly support the principle of these amendments and understand why they are being moved but, like the Greens, we support the passage of the Dean Smith bill even if the amendments don’t succeed.”
During the Senate debate on marriage equality, progressives and conservatives did battle over how to implement the will of 61.6% of people who voted for same-sex marriage in the postal survey.
There were tears from the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, a suggestion to repeal discrimination law by libertarian David Leyonhjelm and a strident defence of the new silent majority who want “religious protections” from Coalition conservatives.
The debate is set to drag on all week, with second reading speeches on Monday and Tuesday before the cross-party bill moves into the committee stage for an amendment fight that Labor and marriage equality advocates believe conservatives are likely to lose.
Labor’s Jenny McAllister said the postal survey had proved “there is no hidden army of social conservatives, the years of polling were right”.
But Zed Seselja and Eric Abetz had found a new majority to protect: those who wanted legal changes to protect “religious freedom, freedom of speech and parental choice”.
Seselja committed only to vote yes at the second reading stage and then push for amendments so the legislation was not a “blank cheque”.
Abetz said he was in “no doubt that I’m in the majority amongst my fellow Australians in my advocacy for the protection of their long-held and deeply cherished freedoms”.
The Liberal senator David Fawcett signalled he would introduce a series of amendments based on the James Paterson conservative marriage bill including to prevent any detriment to religious or charitable bodies such as loss of funding or charitable status based on their traditional marriage beliefs.
The majority of senators so far have spoken in favour of marriage equality, including Smith, Labor’s Penny Wong, Rice and others who co-sponsored the bill and spoke when it was introduced in the last session.
In a sign that Liberal supporters of same-sex marriage would reject changes to the bill education minister, Simon Birmingham, told Sky News he would “consider every amendment” but “won’t support those that create new forms of discrimination”.
He noted the limits of federal power in legislating in the area of education, over which the states have power.
Marriage equality advocates have also taken heart from the fact Liberal senators Jane Hume and Linda Reynolds have co-sponsored the crossparty bill.