There’s a new “omnibus bill” heading for parliament in the coming months which is being interpreted, correctly, as vengeance for the passage of same sex marriage last year.
You might recall that there were a few people who were not entirely happy about marriage equality winning a landslide victory in the hearts and minds of Australians, despite the deliberate attempt to make the process as difficult as possible.
Among those who advocated for a hetero-only version of marriage, and then scurried out of parliament so as not to have to vote on the legislation, was our current Prime Minister, Scott Morrison.
And the new law – scheduled for the winter/spring parliamentary session and separate to the anti-discrimination legislation being worked up by the Attorney General – would reportedly enshrine the right for religious organisations to advocate against same sex marriage without putting their charity status at risk, among other things.
The problem, as LGBTIQ+ advocates are pointing out, is that whacking the old definition of marriage into law opens the way for motivated governments to “undermine marriage equality by stealth, using technical legal detail”.
And if that sounds like a long shot, the issue is that the mere existence of such a law offering a way forward for discrimination gives grounds for others to argue that they too should enjoy similar freedoms.
And the entire point of changing the Marriage Act was to ensure that there wasn’t a tiered situation with marriage, where gay couples had the basic package and straight ones enjoyed platinum Discrimination Free cover at no extra cost.
Can it get through the senate? Well, maybe.
If Labor and the Greens oppose something – as they likely will with such a law – it needs four of the six crossbenchers to support it.
Ex-Liberal independent Cory Bernardi is a definite yes, One Nation’s two senators will probably back the government, and Jacqui Lambie is a wildcard. Centre Alliance’s two senators would probably lean toward opposing it but it would depend on the details of the legislation.
In any case: don’t think that legislating marriage equality means things are settled, friends. There are more entirely avoidable fights to come.