A parliamentary conscience vote on same-sex marriage is likely to be the compromise agreed at Labor’s national conference this year.
All the Labor state and territory branches, except NSW, now support gay marriage after the Victorian Labor Party yesterday voted in support of a resolution calling on the ALP to amend the party platform.
”In a way it feels odd to get up here at a Labor state conference and talk about love but it is such an important and central foundation … to happy lives,” the co-convener of Rainbow Labor, Sarah Cole, said.
The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, supports the current definition of the Marriage Act but says she is prepared to debate the issue at the party’s conference.
Although senior members of her cabinet have spoken in support for the change, many MPs remain uncomfortable about a more liberal position. Changing the Labor Party platform to support same-sex marriage would be controversial, painting Labor as beholden to the Greens.
”The easiest way to accommodate everyone is a conscience vote,” one Labor source said.
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