Christian Lobby condemns Victorian ALP same-sex marriage push
For release: November 23, 2009
The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) has strongly condemned the passing of a resolution by the Victorian Labor Party state conference on the weekend calling for gay marriage and urging the Federal Government not to disallow ACT legislation to give same-sex couples legal ‘marriage-like’ ceremonies.
ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace said it is not surprising that the push to undermine marriage and change the social fabric of society is coming from the more radical left-leaning elements of the Labor Party in both Victoria and the ACT who are intent on pushing a social engineering agenda which would be at odds with most Christian views.
“The Rudd Government has given Labor an opportunity to consolidate what was a well-acknowledged shift of many Christian voters to Labor in the last federal election but if they follow the urging of elements of the Victorian Labor Party and their equivalent elsewhere they will never hold those gains,” Mr Wallace said.
“It would be similar to the situation with the ‘Howard battlers’ who came over to the Coalition and then deserted it in 2007.”
Mr Wallace said there is an ‘open and shut case’ for the Federal Government to overturn the ACT legislation.
“There was a clear pre-election commitment given by Federal Labor that they would not allow the mimicking of marriage and there’s been no more brazen attempt to do this than that represented by the legislation recently passed by the ACT Assembly.
“The thing that will drive Christians away from Labor if this legislation is left standing is not so much the issue itself, as the concern about how much they can trust a Federal Labor Government if a key election promise to the Christian constituency is broken. This is not a threat, it is simply fact,” Mr Wallace said.
Mr Wallace said the ACT Government is trying to frame this issue solely in terms of whether the civil partnerships legislation contravenes the Marriage Act according to fine constitutional legalities and its latest supposedly ‘clever’ attempt to get around any problems.
“Whether it does or not is not the real issue at stake – although if its own proponents are saying it is actually marriage then surely it contravenes the Marriage Act. The issue is that the Federal Government has the constitutional power to disallow the ACT legislation and its election promise impels it to do so,” he said.
Media Contact: Glynis Quinlan on 0408 875 979
The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) has strongly condemned the passing of a resolution by the Victorian Labor Party state conference on the weekend calling for gay marriage and urging the Federal Government not to disallow ACT legislation to give same-sex couples legal ‘marriage-like’ ceremonies.
ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace said it is not surprising that the push to undermine marriage and change the social fabric of society is coming from the more radical left-leaning elements of the Labor Party in both Victoria and the ACT who are intent on pushing a social engineering agenda which would be at odds with most Christian views.
“The Rudd Government has given Labor an opportunity to consolidate what was a well-acknowledged shift of many Christian voters to Labor in the last federal election but if they follow the urging of elements of the Victorian Labor Party and their equivalent elsewhere they will never hold those gains,” Mr Wallace said.
“It would be similar to the situation with the ‘Howard battlers’ who came over to the Coalition and then deserted it in 2007.”
Mr Wallace said there is an ‘open and shut case’ for the Federal Government to overturn the ACT legislation.
“There was a clear pre-election commitment given by Federal Labor that they would not allow the mimicking of marriage and there’s been no more brazen attempt to do this than that represented by the legislation recently passed by the ACT Assembly.
“The thing that will drive Christians away from Labor if this legislation is left standing is not so much the issue itself, as the concern about how much they can trust a Federal Labor Government if a key election promise to the Christian constituency is broken. This is not a threat, it is simply fact,” Mr Wallace said.
Mr Wallace said the ACT Government is trying to frame this issue solely in terms of whether the civil partnerships legislation contravenes the Marriage Act according to fine constitutional legalities and its latest supposedly ‘clever’ attempt to get around any problems.
“Whether it does or not is not the real issue at stake – although if its own proponents are saying it is actually marriage then surely it contravenes the Marriage Act. The issue is that the Federal Government has the constitutional power to disallow the ACT legislation and its election promise impels it to do so,” he said.
Media Contact: Glynis Quinlan on 0408 875 979