SYDNEY, Jaringnews.com – Partai Buruh Australia sepakat mendukung pernikahan gay. Setelah pidato bergairah dan emosional dari kedua kubu yang pro dan kontra di tubuh Partai Buruh pada Sabtu ini, akhirnya para delegasi sepakat mengubah platform partai mereka yaitu mendukung pernikahan bagi pasangan gay.
Keputusan ini disambut dengan tepuk tangan meriah dari 400 delegasi dan dipuji oleh para pendukung sebagai saat yang bersejarah. Keputusan ini memang mengejutkan karena pada dasarnya bertentangan dengan larangan nasional untuk pernikahan sejenis.
Dalam pembukaan debat, Julia Gillard meminta semua peserta diskusi mengedepankan penghormatan.
“Anda semua tahu apa pandangan saya tentang perdebatan ini dan saya tahu banyak anggota di aula ini tidak setuju dengan pandangan saya,” katanya.
“Tapi yang paling penting adalah perdebatan ini harus dalam suasana hormat,” pinta Gillard.
Ia menegaskan bahwa pemerintahnya tidak akan mengubah UU Perkawinan yang mendefinisikan bahwa perkawinan itu antara seorang perempuan dan lelaki.
Pemungutan suara untuk mengubah platform untuk mendukung pernikahan gay menghasilkan 208:184 suara.
Gillard juga mengingatkan bahwa platform itu kemungkinan besar akan gagal di parlemen mengingat oposisi konservatif tidak mendukung pernikahan lgbt.
Andrew Barr, Menteri Kepala Deputi Capital Territory Australia yang disebut-sebut mendukung pernikahan gay mengatakan bahwa isu ini baru akan dibahas di parlemen pada 2012 mendatang.
“Gay, lesbian, biseksual, transgender dan interseks Australia adalah bagian dari komunitas kami,” katanya.
Secara terpisah Lembaga Kesetaraan Perkawinan Australia Greenwich Alex menegaskan bahwa momentum untuk perubahan sudah tak terbendung karena kesetaraan pernikahan adalah masalah yang menggema seiring dengan nilai-nilai fundamental di Australia seperti keadilan dan kesetaraan.(Deb/Deb)
sumber berita : www.jaringnews.com
Sumber Foto : www.theaustralian.com.au
LABOR has amended its official policy platform to advocate same-sex marriage, but the party’s MPs will be allowed a conscience vote on the issue in the federal parliaments.
The historic policy shift, endorsed by the ALP national conference today, followed impassioned pleas from gay marriage supporters for the party to deliver dignity to same-sex couples.
But Labor’s religious right warned the Gillard would be be removed from office if the party recognised gay marriage.
The change came amid a last-minute challenge to the Prime Minister’s authority, when same-sex marriage supporters demanded an official vote on her motion for Labor MPs to have a conscience vote on the issue.
Faction bosses had agreed yesterday that there would be no vote, and the motion would be passed on the voices.
But same-sex marriage supporters demanded one from the conference floor.
There were five delegates absent from the floor for the count on Ms Gillard’s conscience vote motion, and it’s understood a number of delegates shifted sides from their intended position to protect the Prime Minister from a humiliating defeat.
The count went the Prime Minister’s way 208 votes to 184.
ACT Deputy Chief Minister Andrew Barr moved the motion to change the platform, seconded by federal Cabinet Minister Penny Wong, urging delegates at today’s ALP national conference to end marriage discrimination against same-sex couples, saying the change was consistent with Labor’s tradition of equality and support for human rights.
”We’re not nameless, faceless people who live on the margins of society,” Mr Barr said.
”We deserve the respect and the dignity afforded to others. We deserve equality.”
But Right-faction powerbroker Joe De Bruyn said marriage had been the union of a man and a woman ”since the dawn of humanity”, and was itself a core Labor value, having been preserved under successive Labor governments.
“Today we have a fighting chance to win the next election,” he said.
“If the platform is changed, then rather than win seats in Queensland, as we need to do, we may very well lose more seats.
“In suburban Sydney or Melbourne, again, we are likely to lose more seats.”
Ms Gillard said a conscience vote on the issue for Labor parliamentarians was crucial, showing respect those with deeply-held views on the issue.
”This debate is one that speaks to people in a deeply personal way,” she said.
After Mr Barr spoke, more than half the delegates and observers rose to their feet and loudly applauded. But many members of the national Right remained seated. Senator Wong recived the same rousing reception from delegates.
One observer was asked to be silent after heckling Senator Wong.
When Mr de Bruyn asked whether the party was prepared to turn its back on a core principle -that marriage be between a man and a woman – delegates yelled out “yes”.
Senator Wong said the chances of securing marriage equality in Australia were now up to Tony Abbott, and whether he allowed his own MPs a conscience vote on the issue.
“The real politics now in getting the reform through are in Tony Abbott’s court, because we in the Labor Party have made a very clear decision today about what our party stands for and what our members and senators will be able to do on the floor of the federal parliament,” she told reporters after the vote.
The Finance Minister, who is in a long-term same-sex relationship, paid tribute to Ms Gillard, saying it was a “measure of the woman” that she had allowed a full and frank debate on the contentious issue.
The Gillard government will not sponsor a bill to change the Marriage Act, on the orders of Ms Gillard, but Mr Barr said a private members bill would be moved by a Labor MP.
The Australian Christian Lobby reacted swiftly to the resolution, saying the party – in defiance of Ms Gillard – had chosen to be on the “wrong side of truth”.
“It is the wrong side of truth where gay activism has made a lie of children’s birth certificates by directing that fathers’ names be removed in favour of two lesbians’ names,” ACL director Jim Wallace said.
“(It is) the wrong side of truth where gay activism has made a lie of biology so even a single man can get a child, as if there are no natural rights of the child to a mother.”
He said the party had chosen to break an unequivocal election promise the Marriage Act would remain unchanged and marriage continue to be defined as between a man and a woman.
Source : www.theaustralian.com.au
