Labor shows off rainbow ties
Labor Party candidates, MPs and even ministers are putting their faces to a new online campaign highlighting the support for same-sex marriage within the party.
Rainbow Labor advocates launched 鈥楲abor for Marriage Equality鈥� last month on social media sites, Facebook and Twitter involving party members from federal, state and local government.
Photos of high profile Labor members holding signs reading the campaign name including NSW opposition leader John Robertson, federal health minister Tanya Plibersek and federal finance minister Penny Wong (pictured right) have featured.
Other Labor members include Throsby MP Stephen Jones, NSW shadow transport minister Penny Sharpe, federal Melbourne candidate Cath Bowtell, and City of Sydney councillor Linda Scott.
The majority of the party鈥檚 rank-and-file members took a stand on the issue at the 2011 ALP National Conference when they changed the policy platform to recognise marriage as a commitment between two people instead of between a man and a woman.
However, just under two thirds of federal Labor Lower House MPs voted for a marriage equality bill last September, where the parliamentary party was allowed a conscience vote.
In a statement, ACT Labor Deputy Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the momentum for marriage equality was unstoppable within the ALP and in the broader community.
鈥淭he Australian Labor Party has a strong tradition of standing up for equality and doing what is right for all Australians, regardless of their ethnicity, their gender or their sexuality,鈥� Barr said.
鈥淚t is in this tradition that Labor party members have stood up and proudly declared their support for marriage equality.鈥�
Barr moved the amendment to have the platform changed at the 2011 national conference.
WA Labor senator and Rainbow Labor member Louise Pratt said Australia could not achieve marriage equality without the backing of Coalition senators and MPs.
鈥淭he reality is that, for this important social reform to pass through the federal Parliament, it must gain support from a majority of parliamentarians,鈥� Pratt said.
鈥淟abor took the important step of allowing Labor parliamentarians to vote with their hearts on this issue. It鈥檚 high time that Opposition Leader Tony Abbott allows his parliamentarians to do the same so this social reform can find the majority support it needs to become law.鈥�
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