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(Canberra) Australia's federal government
threatened on Wednesday to bring in legislation to block any attempt by The
Australian Capital Territory to legalize civil unions with all of the rights and
benefits of marriage.
As 365Gay.com reported on Tuesday ACT Chief
Minister Jon Stanhope said he would enact the civil union bill, patterned after
Britain's civil partnership law which went into effect last year. (story)
But, federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said
Wednesday that the government would intervene unless the bill is changed to
provide only a domestic partner registry with limited benefits.
"For a territory to say 'well that's fine for the
Commonwealth Parliament to have resolved in that way, we're still going to
assert that a civil union is a marriage in all but title, and we're going to
use marriage celebrants to demonstrate that', let me make it very clear: that
will not satisfy the Commonwealth," Ruddock said.
Wednesday night Stanhope appeared to be prepared
to soften the bill but said that he finds the government's position difficult to
comprehend.
"What is his real concern about my
commitment to remove discrimination and to show respect to same-sex
relationships," rhetorically asked. "The question is whether or not
the real reason is that there is no place in [Prime Minister] John Howard's
Australia for homosexuals."
One of the changes Stanhope said he would
consider is the use of marriage celebrants to perform civil unions, indicating
when the bill reaches lawmakers it could provide for separate officials to
conduction civil unions.
"We will now look at the implications of
creating our own roll of civil celebrants for the purposes of the civil unions
act that will overcome the stated or identified objection," he said.
The civil unions bill also came under fire from
the Catholic Church.
"Same sex unions mimic marriage so closely
that the unique place of marriage is obscured and would soon disappear,"
said Francis Carroll.
In 2004 the Australian government passed
legislation defining marriage as between a man and a woman (story)
and Prime Minister Howard has steadfastly refused to consider national
civil union legislation.
©365Gay.com 2006
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