Whatever one’s position on the introduction of same sex marriage certain things are now clear in terms of Australian party politics and Australia’s place in the world.
Although the time span is still relatively short Australia now lags well behind the Western world, including many comparable countries, including the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada and many American states. Unlike 120 years ago around the time of Federation, when Australia was a leader on issues such as votes for women, other democratic reforms such as the secret ballot, and a living wage, our country is now a laggard.
The centre-left of politics, the Greens and Labor, joined recently from the right by Liberal Democratic Senator David Leyonhjelm, has been the leader in Australia on the issue. Both the Greens and Labor’s Stephen Jones, the Member for Throsby, have already prepared bills for the Parliament. Recently Labor’s Deputy Leader Tanya Plibersek signalled that she would ask the next ALP National Conference to make support for gay marriage binding party policy. Now, following the Irish referendum, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has taken the initiative and will introduce a private members bill for same sex marriage legislation into the Parliament today.
Both Plibersek and Shorten have been criticised by Coalition members for making the granting of a Liberal party conscience vote more difficult. But that is sour grapes as the Liberals have already had plenty of time to move in this direction. Certainly it has given Shorten a political opportunity at a crucial time for him but there is nothing wrong with that.
Remarkably, given the reputation of Ireland and of Irish Catholics in Australia for church-based social conservatism, the Irish referendum has proved to be a catalyst in Australian politics. Why this is so is not clear but momentum for change had been building and perhaps the strength of the Irish Yes vote was just the straw that broke the camel’s back. Certainly there is a feeling that if the hitherto conservative Irish can do it where does that leave Australia. This impact may be felt particularly among those Australian politicians of Irish-Catholic heritage.
Now that the issue, which has had majority public support for some time, has been energised it would be best if the social reform was ‘owned’, to use Tony Abbott’s term, by the whole Australian Parliament and the Australian community. But that is not because of anything the Prime Minister has said or done.