Culture

Labor Has Announced They’ll Put Forward A Bill On Marriage Equality This Monday

BREAKING: BILL SHORTEN DID SOMETHING.

by Meg Watson  26 May 2015

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Labor leader Bill Shorten and Deputy leader Tanya Plibersek just dropped a goddamn bombshell on Twitter and announced they’d be moving a bill on marriage equality this coming Monday.

This is happening next week. Six days from now. I’d say it’s all moving very quickly except for the fact this has been the longest fucking wait of all our lives.

In a corresponding Facebook post, Shorten reiterated that he had given notice that he’d move a Private Member’s Bill in the House of Reps and declared, “It’s time for our laws to reflect the values of modern Australia and to include everyone as equals.”

“All MPs should have a free vote on this matter,” he said. “Let’s make marriage equality a reality.”

It’s been seven long months since we first got excited about this IRL version of Droopy the sad cartoon dog when he made strong statements for marriage equality to the Australian Christian Lobby, and now he’s finally done something to help fix it.

Interestingly, this also comes just a couple of hours after Anthony Albanese made a stand on the issue in the Federation Chamber.

“It is now time for Australia to join the nations that have recognised that people should be allowed to marry the person that they love,” he said. “Giving one group of people the rights they have been denied does not in any way diminish the rights that currently exist for the rest of us. I fail to see how the instituion of marraige is weakened if more people have the chance to participate.”

Foreshadowing what was about to happen he then stated, “I strongly believe there should be a vote on the matter in Parliament this year, and it should be a conscience vote”. “That would allow parliamentarians to have a mature debate in both the House of Reps and the Senate.”

This move is no doubt a little motivated by the fact it was only this morning that The Greens announced they would be bringing forward a Senate debate on the issue on June 18, to be followed with a vote on November 12.

In a press conference this morning, Greens MP Sarah Hanson-Young explained,”This gives members of all parties the opportunity to think about how they will vote on the issue and of course the impetus for Tony Abbott to have a free vote.”

New Greens leader Richard Di Natale even reached out to Shorten directly:

Now — though they totally support the cause — they’re a tiny bit peeved:

Either way, it’s definitely good news and a welcome show of support on an issue which is starting to embarrass us on the international stage. There’s still a huge question over whether Tony Abbott will allow a free vote on the matter, especially now that he’s been forced by Labor, but with 72 percent of the country behind the cause it’s pretty hard to ignore.