Griffith by-election a win for same-sex marriage
Image: Terri Butler and Bill Glasson are both running for the federal seat of Griffith in the February 8 by-election
SAME-SEX marriage will be the only guaranteed winner at next month鈥檚 Griffith by-election with the two major party candidates both supporting it.
Following the retirement of former Prime Minister and Griffith federal Labor MP Kevin Rudd last year, House of Representatives Speaker Bronwyn Bishop this week announced a by- election for the Queensland federal electorate on February 8.
What is being seen as a coup for the marriage equality movement, candidates from both Labor and Liberal-National parties have expressed their intention to vote in favour of same- sex marriage should the issue come to the floor of parliament.
Brisbane employment lawyer Terri Butler was endorsed late last year as the Labor Griffith candidate, while the Coalition鈥檚 candidate for the 2013 election, ophthalmologist and former Australian Medical Association president Bill Glasson, will run again.
Both candidates have said they would vote in favour of same-sex marriage, but Glasson鈥檚 vote is dependent on Prime Minister Tony Abbott allowing his Coalition party a conscience vote.
鈥淚f I was given the opportunity of a conscience vote, then I would certainly have no hesitation in supporting marriage for all Australians,鈥� Glasson told Fairfax.
Labor parliamentarians are already guaranteed a conscience vote should the issue come to the floor, but Butler doubted the government would legislate for change this year.
鈥淚 would say if I were elected and I had a vote, you know where mine would be cast,鈥� she said.
鈥淏ut this is a question squarely for the Prime Minister 鈥� does he believe in equality or not?鈥�
Leichhardt federal Coalition MP Warren Entsch also told 今日吃瓜 Corp recently that he believed the Prime Minister would allow his party to vote according to their conscience in 2014, possibly as soon as the next parliamentary sitting period.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 really comment on what Warren Entsch knows or doesn鈥檛 know, but I think it鈥檚 indicative of a broader groundswell of support in the Coalition ranks for same-sex marriage,鈥� Butler said.
鈥淭hey feel, I think, rightly aggrieved that they鈥檙e not in a position to back a bill that would allow for same-sex marriage.鈥�
One can only hope that there is an independent candidate standing for this seat, who believes in the right of children to experience full-term birth, a sense of purpose and destiny from having lived a full life. After all, the rest of us have had that opportunity. If you don’t want that for your babies, don’t take sexual relations as a right. It is a responsibility.