In preparation for its upcoming National Conference, the Australian Labor Party has released a draft of its National Platform. The platform is the party’s governing document — it is what the party believes in.

Clause 116 of Chapter 9 states that “Labor believes that people are entitled to respect, equality, dignity and the opportunity to participate in society … regardless of their sexuality or gender identity”.

Yet only a few lines down the page, Clause 120 affirms Labor’s “commitment to maintaining the definition of marriage as currently set out in the Marriage Act”. It is difficult to see how the former can be achieved when it is precisely respect, dignity and equality that are denied when Labor clings to the latter.

I was born in apartheid South Africa, at a time when it was illegal for people of different races to marry. While laws in Australia may not have been as strict, we are no strangers to discrimination on the basis of race, with the White Australia policy surviving until the 1970s. Today, such laws would seem unconscionable.

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