Amidst the government's many and varied fuck-ups of late, there's one issue being discussed in Parliament that's largely been tossed aside by the media, as they focus on budget cuts, refugee mistreatment and Internet censorship. Recently, a member of our Liberal Democrats (a minor party holding only one seat in Parliament), Senator David Leyonhjelm, introduced a bill to legalise same-sex marriage in Australia.
It's a touchy subject for many politicians, with Labor having allowed their members a conscience vote, but the Coalition (which presently controls a majority in the House of Representatives) still forcing their representatives to vote against the issue, which has effectively prevented any possibility of this legislation being passed. Leyonhjelm seems to be hedging his bets, trying to introduce the matter slowly; the bill in question was drafted some months ago, but not introduced until very recently. Unless the Coalition changes its position on a conscience vote, however, there's not much hope.
Senator Leyonhjelm recently penned
an article outlining the intent of the bill. I agree with everything he says in the article, as usual for the Liberal Democrats' social policies, but the thing that I find disturbing about it is the hate mail (shown as an image about halfway down) from someone who seems to think that the Senator should be shot in the stomach for daring to stand up for civil liberties.
If anything, Leyonhjelm having the balls to stand up for this issue in Parliament while the major parties are bickering over who's done the most damage to the economy in the past decade has made me seriously consider voting Liberal Democrats next election. There are a few socially progressive parties with seats in the Senate at the moment (most significantly, the Greens), but the Lib Dems seem to be the only ones putting their money where their mouth is.
Here's hoping the Coalition follows Labor into the 21st century and gives their members a conscience vote on marriage equality this year.