Marriage Equality | Motion
18/11/2015
Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. I.K. Hunter:
That this council—
1. Notes the Irish public have overwhelmingly voted ‘yes’ in the referendum on the 34 th Amendment of the Constitution (Marriage Equality) Bill 2015; and
2. Congratulates the people of Ireland for voting in favour of legalising same-sex marriage.
(Continued from 28 October 2015.)
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: Just very briefly, I would like to put on the record my support of this motion. I doubt that that will come as a surprise to anyone in this chamber, given that I have supported marriage equality for many years, and I have also supported other measures to fight discrimination against same-sex attracted people and same-sex couples in this state and in this country.
I would take small issue with something that was said by the Hon. Mr Wade. He seemed to suggest that moving this motion was patronising to the people of Ireland. I think he said words to the effect that we were trying to validate what they had achieved there. I do not think that is what we are doing at all. I think what we are doing is recognising that the people of Ireland, like the majority of people of Australia, support marriage equality.
I think that to be good policymakers we have to look outside of our own state, outside of our own country and toward what other countries are doing and draw inspiration from them. For that reason, I do not find it patronising. I think it is quite reasonable to notice and congratulate other countries for implementing progressive policy.
Like previous speakers, however, I am not convinced that a plebiscite is the way to go. In fact, I have read several articles in the last few weeks that suggest that public support for a plebiscite drops significantly once people are made aware of how much running a plebiscite could cost. I would also argue that it should not be up to an expensive resource-intensive plebiscite to enact something that we have known for a long time now the public already supports. It should not take this hugely resource and finance-intensive measure for us to do something that the public has already been calling on us as a parliament to do for many years now. With those few brief words, I indicate my support for the motion.
