Record high submissions received by Senate Inquiry indicate 67% oppose the Marriage Equality Amendment Bill
Posted by Mathew | November 21, 2009 | 8 Comments
Lodged as a private members Bill by Greens Senator Sarah-Hanson Young, the Marriage Equality Amendment Bill 2009 expressly seeks to alter the legal definition of marriage from “one man and one woman” to “any two people”.
Reported in a recent AAP article, the Bill had received a number of submissions in excess of 26,000 – a record for any Senate inquiry, indicating that the definition of marriage is of a key concern to many in the Australian constituency.
Approximately 67% of the submissions received were opposed to the Bill.
The report implies that the one-sided opposition may in fact be due to two factors: duplicate submissions and a large number of “formula emails sent by Christian groups”.
“It’s not really a vote about how many people click on an email,” responded Peter Furness, who is the convenor of the pro-gay marriage group Australian Marriage Equality.
I frankly can’t see a genuine concern with the method of how submissions are made, nor the relevance of Mr Furness’s comment. Is he implying that individual Christians may have been a bit too click-happy and hit the “submit” button a few too many times – perhaps intentionally in order to skew results?
While I think that implication is largely unfounded, there was of course nothing stopping the pro-gay marriage lobby from employing similar methods of submissions. And you would place a certain level of trust in the Senate Inquiry’s competence to ferret out cookie-cut submissions, a process which I am sure they are still undertaking – for both submissions made in support and opposition to the Bill.
While Mr Furness states that pro-gay marriage advocates had “gone to a lot of trouble to tell their stories” in their submissions to the Senate, that the stories are very personal and heart-felt is not a smart nor intellectually honest way of presenting one’s case. After all, if a group is intent on redefining an institution in which greater society participates in, it stands to reason that there ought to be solid reasons, facts and arguments as to why changes are required – emotional pleas just don’t cut the mustard and I think society as a whole would justly feel insulted and short-changed if that is all that they were to consider.
The official report from the Senate Inquiry is due to be presented at the Senate hearing next Thu 26 November. Based on the early signs, I cannot see that any traction will be given to the Bill – testament from the early indications of overwhelming opposition but due largely, I think, by the election promises made by the Rudd government before it took power to retain the traditional view of marriage. Lyle Shelton notes the Bill is “an exercise in futility” as both the federal government and opposition agree that marriage ought to remain as the union between the sexes.
The Senate Inquiry took public submissions on the Bill up until August 2009. I had posted my own submission in opposition to the Bill and likewise published it on my blog, Why there’s no inequality in the Greens’s Marriage Equality Amendment Bill to address. The Senate Inquiry will deliver their findings re: the Bill to the Australian Senate on 26 November 2009.
Resources and links:
- Record input for gay marriage inquiry
- Australian Marriage Act 1961
- Marriage Equality Amendment Bill 2009
- 21 reasons why marriage matters
Related Thoughts out !oud posts
Tags: culture > homosexuality > marriage > politics > same-sex marriage
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8 Responses to “Record high submissions received by Senate Inquiry indicate 67% oppose the Marriage Equality Amendment Bill”
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November 21st, 2009 @ 11:25 am
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November 21st, 2009 @ 11:29 am
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December 2nd, 2009 @ 3:40 am
I watch these things take place and I am always astounded. There is one submission that every leader understands and can't be poo pooed, and that's the submission of a vote. But alas, for too many, the ladder submission is more akin to a funds request than a demand for solid leadership. Such is our current state of affairs, and I fear much suffering looms for pro and con alike because of it.
December 4th, 2009 @ 10:15 am
Looks like the Senate in New York also had the commonsense to reject same-sex marriage legislation. There seems to be a good number of victories for traditional-marriage defenders in the news over the last several weeks.
Very encouraging, even despite the obvious lack of impartiality on reports of these conclusions in the mainstream media.
December 9th, 2009 @ 10:56 pm
My opinion is that the same sex marriage should be voted and maybe the government would stop wasting time on such simple matters and start focusing on important problems, such as the global crisis. If two men or women want to get married, is that my problem? Let them get married… It's their life…
December 10th, 2009 @ 7:29 am
Basically, your argument boils down to: “There's more important stuff the Government should focus on so they should get the gay lobby of their back and legalise same-sex marriage.”
I see two problems with your argument:
1) You assume that marriage is not an important social issue. If that's true, then why is there a push for same-sex marriage? If it's not important, why bother about it at all?
2) You further assume that marriage is a private affair: “Is it a problem for me if two men get married?”. If it is a private affair, why should the state be involved at all? Why is the state involved in traditional-marriage, if it's just a private affair?
(BTW, I edited your comment as the link appeared suspect to me.)
December 14th, 2009 @ 7:01 am
Does anyone consider the possibility that SSM is one of the reasons that the West is so hated by Islam? Devout and murderous adherents to a global religion that finds homosexuality detestable, I think, might be cause for concern for those interested in global crises.
December 15th, 2009 @ 5:34 am
Does anyone consider the possibility that SSM is one of the reasons that the West is so hated by Islam? Devout and murderous adherents to a global religion that finds homosexuality detestable, I think, might be cause for concern for those interested in global crises.