Julia Gillard has played down the fact that the conference of Labor’s Victorian branch was unable to raise a quorum to debate same-sex marriage.
But amid claims the party’s Right factions colluded to stymie the debate, the Prime Minister has also said she expects an open discussion on marriage rights at Labor’s national conference in Sydney in December.
Her comments came yesterday as senior NSW Labor Left figure Doug Cameron likened the ban on same-sex marriage to “apartheid”, and as the Greens expressed disappointment about the weekend Labor conference.
Labor is deeply split on the issue of same-sex marriage, with its Left wanting a rule change to support equity in marriage and its Right insisting that marriage must be only between men and women.
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