Families want marriage equality, Entsch stuck on civil unions

A national television commercial featuring parents and grandparents talking about why they want marriage equality will screen across the country from today, as advocates dismissed the latest call from the likes of Liberal MP Warren Entsch for a national civil union scheme instead. 

The advertisement was organised by Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) in a bid to increase pressure on Coalition Leader Tony Abbott to allow for a conscience vote for Liberal and Nationals MPs when a private member’s bill on same-sex marriage is introduced in Federal Parliament this year.

PFLAG spokesperson, Shelley Argent (pictured), said that recent polls showed that both the wider community as well as Coalition voters clearly wanted Abbott to grant a conscience vote – a call that has been backed up today by former high-profile Liberal MP, Amanda Vanstone.

“Mr Abbott never promised the Coalition wouldn’t allow a conscience vote, but he did go to the last election promising to stand for individual freedom and removing government interference in family life, both of which are consistent with granting a conscience vote on marriage equality,” Argent said.

“As parents, we want our same sex-attracted sons and daughters to have the choice and right to celebrate their relationships exactly the same as their straight siblings and extended family members and to have these same relationships validated in the eyes of the law.”

The launch of the commercial comes as Entsch, the chief Coalition whip and co-cofounder of the Parliament's LGBTI Friendship Group, confirmed that he had recently been in talks with his counterpart, Government whip Joel Fitzgibbon, on jointly sponsoring legislation providing for same-sex civil unions.

“My view is that a marriage proposal will not succeed,” Entsch told The Australian.

“I’m looking at what can be done. It’s not going to satisfy the hardliners, but I think it’s certainly going to make a difference for a very significant number of gay couples.”

Australian Marriage Equality national convener, Alex Greenwich, said civil unions would only prolong debate about same-sex marriage and called on Entsch to test his proposed bill in the upcoming Senate inquiry into marriage equality.

“It makes no sense to bring this forward before support for marriage equality is tested in parliament following the senate inquiry, unless the aim is to take pressure off Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard over their opposition to a same-sex marriage,” Greenwich said.

“The gay and lesbian community and our families overwhelmingly support marriage equality over civil unions, so all a civil union scheme will do is prolong the debate rather than bring it to an end.”

A 2009 national study by the University of Queensland, Not So Private Lives, showed 80 per cent of gay Australians support marriage equality while only 25 per cent prefer civil unions to recognise their own relationships.

Meanwhile, Vanstone – a minister in the former Howard Government when the Marriage Act was amended in 2004 to prohibit same-sex marriage – has used an op-ed piece in Fairfax papers today to argue that Abbott should stick to Liberal principles and offer a conscience vote.

“There has never been a substantive policy issue (as opposed to a procedural one) where Labor has had a conscience vote and the Liberals have not. There have been quite a few where the Liberals have had a free vote and Labor has not,” Vanstone wrote.

“On gay marriage, Abbott has a chance to redeem the situation. He should say he will look at the issue if and when it comes to Parliament. And he should give the party room the conscience vote that should never have been given away.”