High profile Australian Liberal Party MP Malcolm Turnbull has called on parliament to legislate for gay civil unions as a bridge to marriage equality. The former party leader and Shadow Minister for Communications and Broadband has given a speech to Southern Cross University, saying the more he reflected on gay marriage, the less convinced he was by the arguments against it. He questioned the religious grounds for opposition, saying many things labelled a "sin" in the Old Testament do not form part of the modern Australian legal system. "We should not miss the opportunity to legislate for civil unions for same sex couples in this parliament," Turnbull said. "I recognise that will be seen by many as not good enough. "But it is better than nothing and, as I said in the House last week on another issue, it is a great mistake to allow your conception of the perfect to be the enemy of the good." Australian Marriage Equality is not impressed, saying wherever civil unions have been enacted they entrench discrimination rather than remove it. "Civil unions may be a politically expedient cop-out for politicians, but they will never be a solution to the acute hurt and discrimination felt by so many same sex couples, their families and their communities," National Convener Alex Greenwich says.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Sunday, 8th July 2012 - 8:14pm