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lishesquexRudd refuses to overrule ACT on gay partnership bill
SAME-SEX Australian couples may be able to have their relationship formally recognised as early as next year, after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he would not overrule laws permitting civil unions.
But the privilege could be restricted to couples in the Australian Capital Territory.
Mr Rudd said yesterday that he would not override ACT legislation allowing for civil unions because it was a matter for states and territories.
The ACT has already tried twice to introduce civil partnership laws. But the Howard government used its power over Australian territories to veto or threaten to scrap the legislation.
Yesterday, Mr Rudd indicated he would not do the same. "On these matters, state and territories are answerable to their own jurisdictions," he said.
This is despite Labor telling the Christian lobby before the election it "did not support legislation to recognise same-sex marriage or civil unions".
Labor's federal platform is to support a nationally consistent system of relationship registers.
Registers are less controversial than civil unions because they don't involve a ceremony, which Christian groups view as being too close to a wedding.
Relationship registers are already in use in Tasmania and are being introduced in Victoria.
Mr Rudd's comments came despite federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland suggesting this week that he favoured registers. But ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell told The Age that registers did not go far enough.
He welcomed the Prime Minister's comments and said he would consider changing the legislation to stop people from outside the ACT having a civil union in Canberra, if that was a concern for the Government.
As it stands, the ACT's civil partnerships bill does not require couples to live in the Territory to have a civil union.
From The Age :D
KEVIN IS SO COOL.
SAME-SEX Australian couples may be able to have their relationship formally recognised as early as next year, after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he would not overrule laws permitting civil unions.
But the privilege could be restricted to couples in the Australian Capital Territory.
Mr Rudd said yesterday that he would not override ACT legislation allowing for civil unions because it was a matter for states and territories.
The ACT has already tried twice to introduce civil partnership laws. But the Howard government used its power over Australian territories to veto or threaten to scrap the legislation.
Yesterday, Mr Rudd indicated he would not do the same. "On these matters, state and territories are answerable to their own jurisdictions," he said.
This is despite Labor telling the Christian lobby before the election it "did not support legislation to recognise same-sex marriage or civil unions".
Labor's federal platform is to support a nationally consistent system of relationship registers.
Registers are less controversial than civil unions because they don't involve a ceremony, which Christian groups view as being too close to a wedding.
Relationship registers are already in use in Tasmania and are being introduced in Victoria.
Mr Rudd's comments came despite federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland suggesting this week that he favoured registers. But ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell told The Age that registers did not go far enough.
He welcomed the Prime Minister's comments and said he would consider changing the legislation to stop people from outside the ACT having a civil union in Canberra, if that was a concern for the Government.
As it stands, the ACT's civil partnerships bill does not require couples to live in the Territory to have a civil union.
From The Age :D
KEVIN IS SO COOL.
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Date: 2007-12-07 04:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-08 04:42 am (UTC)