A cross-party coalition must be established if marriage equality is to pass in the Australian Parliament, Greens leader Christine Milne told a rally in Brisbane on Saturday.
The rally in support of marriage equality attracted about 1000 people to Queens Park on a warm Queensland winter afternoon.
At the first leaders’ debate of the federal election campaign last Sunday, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said, if re-elected, his government would introduce a bill to legalise marriage equality within 100 days of the election and allow a conscience vote for his MPs.
Mr Abbott said it would be a matter for a future party room to decide.
But Senator Milne told the crowd in Queens Park a conscience vote was not enough of a commitment from the Rudd government.
“This ought not to be a conscience vote – this ought to be a vote on a matter of discrimination,” she said.
“We wouldn’t have a conscience vote on women’s equality, for example. We wouldn’t be having conscience votes on any other form of equality – why is this a conscience issue?
“…In this country, we should not be discriminating against people on the basis of their sexuality, full stop.”
Senator Milne said she would push for members of all parties to be involved in an “equal love” coalition.
“We’ve already had a private member’s bill – we’ve had several – and they were voted down because they went to matters of conscience and the Coalition didn’t vote in terms of conscience,” she said.
“This time around, since the Labor Party won’t treat this as a matter of discrimination … we will campaign to make sure that there is a cross-party coalition of MPs across all political parties and that means we have to bring pressure to bear on Tony Abbott to allow a conscience vote for the Coalition.
“That is something we all must campaign for and get a cross-party alliance working together to get this legislation through.”
The demonstration was held in the Liberal National Party-held seat of Brisbane, which Teresa Gambaro holds with a razor-thin margin of 1.1 per cent.
At the time of the rally, Ms Gambaro was at Stafford announcing a $750,000 Coalition campaign promise to upgrade Brisbane Inner North Sporting Community facilities.
Two of her opponents, Labor candidate Fiona McNamara and the Greens’ Rachael Jacobs, addressed the rally and pledged their support for marriage equality in Parliament.
Following the speeches, the demonstrators marched along a predetermined route in the CBD, before stopping at the intersection of Albert and Adelaide streets.
It was there they took a vote to make an unexpected detour into the heart of the Queen Street Mall.
After a brief sit-in in the centre of the mall, in front of shoppers expressing either support or bemusement, they continued their march back towards Queens Park.
Photos: Michelle Smith
Author: Cameron Atfield
Publication: brisbanetimes.com.au
Date: 17 August 2013