Mission & Justice

Dewi Cooke; 4/8/08

It was a study in social (and legal) contrasts. In St Patrick’s Cathedral, hundreds of men and women stood before an altar to have their decades-long marriages commemorated by Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart and his Catholic congregation. As they did, hundreds were rallying outside another Melbourne institution, the State Library of Victoria, for the rights of gays and lesbians to have their relationships formally recognised under law. For the Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby, the rally marked an anniversary too — it is nearly four years since the Howard government amended the Marriage Act to declare marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

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Paul Maley & Samantha Maiden; 6/5/08

The ACT Government has accused Kevin Rudd of pandering to the “extreme Christian Right” in its threat to scuttle the territory’s controversial civil partnerships bill. Yesterday, the ACT’s federal Labor members and senators were labelled hypocrites for failing to condemn the commonwealth after it threatened to disallow the bill on the grounds that it would mimic marriage. ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell accused the Prime Minister, a devout Christian, of “kow-towing” to the Christian lobby.

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