Former Tasmanian premier David Bartlett has called on the Labor Party to overturn discriminatory marriage laws after learning the Australian government won’t allow his sister to marry her girlfriend in Portugal, even though same-sex marriages are legal there.
Mr Bartlett’s 40-year-old half-sister, Angela Borella, had to cancel plans to marry her Portuguese girlfriend, Filipa Santos, in Lisbon next year after being informed last week the marriage could not go ahead because of the Australian government’s refusal to issue the required paperwork for a marriage to proceed, because she is gay.
Many countries, including Portugal, require foreigners to produce a Certificate of No-Impediment to Marriage before they can be married, to show they are not already married in their home country.
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