Gillard hints at defying marriage calls
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has hardened her opposition to marriage equality, suggesting that she may even defy a reversal of the ALP’s position if it votes for a change to the Marriage Act at its National Conference in December.
In an interview on Sky 今日吃瓜 this afternoon, Gillard went further than her long-running line that she’d defer debate until National Conference to set the party platform on any change in policy regarding the Marriage Act, telling host David Speers that the National Conference doesn鈥檛 set government positions.
“What the National Conference does is it sets the platform, the aspirations for our political party but always government, Labor Caucus in government makes decisions on government policy,” she said.
When challenged as to whether she’d ignore the National Conference if it decides in favour of gay marriage, she said: “I鈥檝e made my personal views clear and they鈥檒l continue to be my views.
“I鈥檓 not as Prime Minister going to sit here and dictate who can come to National Conference and say what. That wouldn鈥檛 be in accord with my general view that we鈥檙e a party of government and a party of ideas and it鈥檚 a good thing that passionate Labor people come and debate ideas.”
She needs to go, without getting Rudd back… I have let Alabanese know that just verbally supporting our cause is not enough. Like Wong, following the official Gillard line, while just SAYING they support us, is a load of rubbish. Alabanese is in a very marginal seat and needs to know that if we do not get Gay Marriage – and we are talking December, now – that he is toast. We will sacrifice him and his “verbal” support and go Greens if he can’t deliver the goods.
We need to find a way to get thousands to rally in December.
I like Julia and admire her courage for introducing diffiult policies like a carbon tax.
However now it seems my only choice is to vote Green
Ummmmm, so is it the Caucus or your Personal Views that decide national policy Julia???
Just checking, cause if your personal views dominate Caucus decisions then would’nt a conscious vote be in order so all elected government representatives can have thier Personal Views equally represented.
Funny how everyone wants leaders to be decisive and not sit on the fence, but she makes a stand and the entire Oxford Street goes into meltdown. Good on her, she is doing the right thing but personally, gay marriage will come, its not what I want, but, its to be, so keep the pressure up while so many other ‘important’ issues that affect health, ability to make a living and be a socially inclusive society get ignored so one can have a lavish wedding.
Here, here. Why do politicians continue to hold the belief that their personal beliefs have any bearing on this matter? 今日吃瓜 Flash! You represent Australians, not your personal beliefs.
and why does she keep saying she has made her personal views clear as what does this have to do with what the country or even her own political party weants ??? HELLO !
As a long time member of the ALP (30yrs is a long time, maybe too long) what really upsets me about this debate is that our lives/loves/families future happiness has nothing at all to do with policy and or social justice for the current PM.
What this about for Ms Gillard are the $’s that the social conservative De Bruin and his Catholic mates in the leadership of the SDA bring to the ALP table. De Bruin pays the ALP bills and he expects to call the shots on social policy and we in GLBT community are the price Gillard is willing to pay for De Bruins tainted dollars.
Until we accept that we need to be fighting on two fronts that is both the ALP Nat Executive (we have already won the battle of the branches and state branches) and the SDA leadership we won’t get anywhere fast. What we need to do is to take De Bruin on head on and fight him on the shop floor after all its his members money he is using to blackmail the ALP and damage each and everyone of us in the GLBT community.
So can we fight the SDA on the shop floor? Yes of course we can, don’t tell me there are no gay shop assistants in Australia. What the gay shoppies and their supporters need is leadership; they need to join the union and fight the ossified conservative SDA leadership a from within and to beat them.
Well, I haven’t seen the interview–but holding strong to her views isn’t at odds with Labor adopting a pro-gay marriage stance. It just means that her personal views would not be dictating policy. If this turned out to be the case, I would be very happy: Politicians should govern as our representatives, and as PM, her job is to represent the Australian people–in this case, regardless of her own personal views.
It does, however, remain to be seen if that will be the case.
Come on everybody, Australia is a backward country! Remember, this is the country where indigenous people were not even allowed to vote until the 60’s, in fact they were only considered as part of Australias “fauna and flora” and NOT as fellow human beings until not long before even that!
Gay marriage is a long way off in this backward country, if you want progressive politics im afraid you will have to move….
Prime Minister Gillard’s views on gay marriage were evident before the election and are evident after the election, nothing has changed, she was simply re-enforcing her personal views, I watched the interview today and the impression I got was she was just re-stating her personal views. At the end of the day she is entitled to her opinion, as we all are, even if we disagree with her view. I seen no indication that she will defy the decsion of the confrence… She was just once again reaffirming her views.
I’ll never vote Labor. But then I DEFINITELY would never vote Liberal. Even getting Gillard out wouldn’t be of any benefit if Abbott got voted in. My point is that gay marriage is more likely to be given the go ahead while we have a Labor government.
I choose to see her comments not necessarily as a hint that she will override any decisions made at the conference, but that she will maintain her “personal views” regardless of the outcome – and even regardless of whether gay marriage becomes Labor policy. I’m choosing to assume that these comments are simply pandering to the ACL in the hopes that she won’t become an even more unpopular PM than she already is. I still believe that we will achieve marriage equality within the term of this government!
Dear Julia,
Long after the battle is won and I am free to marry the man of my dreams, your obstinate and pig headed refusal to recognise basic human rights will NOT be forgotten.
Shame.
Unfortunately this doesn’t surprise me, as of last election I’ve just started voting for parties that support gay marriage. I’ve become so disenfranchised with the political parties in Australia that I figure I’m just going to vote one issue at a time until it changes. So it looks like I’ll be continuing to vote for the Greens and The Sex Party.
Does she not understand that society is always changing? I wonder if she understands that if we always held onto “traditional beliefs” she would not be in the position she is in. It was once the case that woman couldn’t vote, let alone be the Prime Minister. Seriously Gillard, keep up with the times.
“Ditch the Bitch!” This is what was on placards in another unrelated protest against her- which at the time I thought was over the top. Now I’m thinking it suits her perfectly. She’s riled up 2million bitchy gays & millions of thier protective relatives & friends. And for what? To bow tow to one person- the one man homophobic tornado Major Brigadier Jim Wallace from the Australian Christian Lobby.
Kevin said “sorry” which was well overdue. Labor needs a new face – someone who will carry out the will of the people. Julia, grow up. You are an elected official, not a dictator
I have met Julia numerous times, and she knows I’m gay, and she couldn’t care less if I was or not, you have to remember things have to be passed through the whole government, everyone just needs to relax and let them do there job, it’s like the carbon tax, everyone doesn’t want it, but remember John Howard brought in GST, and we pay more GST then we will carbon tax, we all want these government handouts but we are not willing to pay for them
Not everything is about you and your views!
Think about the people who actually love each other and want what they deserve!
I can’t believe I wasted a vote on you.
Open your freaking mind.
I know so many doomed straight relationships and marriages and so many strong gay couples that want nothing but to get married to the people they LOVE.
Multicultural country my a##.
She is atrocious! She is not there to push here personal views she is the to present the views of Australians. I was under a strong belief that the state and religion were separate in Austalia, it seems not! When will it click with pollititions that Marriage by the government, which should be gender neutral, is not Marrage as performed by some religious sect. Let the Religious hate mongers decide on who they will marry and who they will not, the government should not be biased.
If a particular religious sect will not perform same sex marriages, so be it, there is no requirement to be a member of their congregation and if they support hate then there is a good reason not to be a member. The issue is allowing them to dictate to society who can and can not be married.
To live in a democratic society means the power is with the people. The GLBTI community AND our friends/family in the straight world need to stand together as never before. Doing so will show our government what democracy really means.
A perfect example of people power is the Rip ‘n Roll/Adshell situation in Brisbane. After the advertising company who owns the space in bus shelters removed a paid QHAC campaign poster because they received 44 complaints (17 of which were identical)…95,000 people publicly showed their support and the decision was overturned in less than 24hrs. Why? Because all people stood together and made noise about it.
I therefore call upon all Australians to make noise in support of marriage equity. Even if you don’t want it for yourself, surely someone you know would want this, so do it for them. If the sqeeky wheel gets the grease…hopefully the noisy people with get the equity.
Boo! She does not for a second hint at defying what the party supports; she’s saying that she has her own views however he is a leader of a party not a leader of her own views.
Fail headline.
Funny that she’s so determined about cultural traditions but it wasn’t so long ago that unmarried couples couldn’t live together without society looking down on them! That’s changed, so why can’t this?
We’ll, the President of the Labor party Anna bligh has came out in support of gay marriage. Time for Labor to take there trash out on the curve (Julia Gillard, NSW Right) and usher in the new era (Kate Ellis, Penny Wong)
We’ll, the President of the Labor party Anna bligh has came out in support of gay marriage. Time for Labor to take there trash out on the curve (Julia Gillard, NSW Right) and usher in the new era (Kate Ellis, Penny Wong).
Completely regret voting for her now. Outrageous dark Age Beliefs.
I saw that interview today and she made it absolutely clear that she has no intention of changing her view, regardless of the outcome of the National Convention nor any state conferences. As our culturally traditionalist – so long as it doesn’t affect her in anyway – Prime Minister, there is no way she’ll ever touch the issue. All power to the Labor parties in the various states and those who at the National Conference will stand up, but Gillard will ignore it and keep sucking up to the Christian lobby in a vain attempt to win at the next election. The GLBTI community needs to show her how powerful we can be. We vote too.
I wouldn’t assume that Julia speaks for Labor on this issue. I don’t know who’s views she actually represents and her support and credibility seems to be dwindling by the day. Every person and every organisation who supports equality needs to double their efforts. Let’s put an end to this hateful, divisive discrimination.
Gillard and the Labor Party have been caught out and have setup a 鈥淕LBTI group鈥�, saying they represent us, and used it to argue we want Civil Unions and not marriage. They have conducted private polling in marginal seats to say this, and used the polling to convince members we do not want Marriage Equality. The website looks like they support Marriage Equality, but it is a front so they can claim to speak on our behalf.
Go to MelbourneIT and do a 鈥淲ho is Who鈥� search of the Domain Name. mymarriagestory.com.au
The website is registered to ESSENTIAL MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS PTY LTD. This is the Labor Party Communications company.
PFLAG legend Shelly Argent said she knew little about the group.
A well respected gay man who was on the Queens Birthday Honors list said this was a Labor Party front. Even Shelly Argent, who runs PFLAG who this website uses the logo of, did not even know much about them or what they were up to.
Groups who organise rallies for marriage equality have not been invited to join the Alliance. Why would a Marriage Equality group be scared of Marriage Equality advocates?
Labor has been up to dirty tricks, trying to deny our Civil Rights again!
I would normally not attack a women but WHAT A HARD FACED, INCONSIDERATE, NASTY, SELFISH excuse for a human being.
Never again will she or a political party that she belongs to get my vote.
Labor needs to throw out their trash, including the Catholic SDA Union.