Maya Newell Australia's difficulty with passing a marriage equality law is due to lack of leadership and debate fatigue, a filmmaker with two mothers is suggesting. While the New Zealand marriage equality legislation generated heated debate, there wasn't the prolonged vehemence against it which Australian federal MPs are experiencing. New Zealand's bill passed into law comparatively easily. Speaking after last night's opening of the two-day A Different Conversation event at the Auckland Pride Festival, which seeks to bridge gaps between glbti rights and religious communities, Maya Newell voiced frustration at the lack of progress. "For me it's a really obvious thing. In some ways it's a very unimportant thing that we should just get over and move on to other things." She believes that Australian politicians are still struggling with the issue due to "lack of political leadership on it. Both of our main parties feel that it would be election suicide to admit their support... Of course it wouldn't be election suicide. There are plenty of polls that show that the majority of Australians are pro-marriage equality. It doesn't really make sense." Newell’s much-lauded documentary film Growing Up Gayby was shown last night. It explores the lives of same-sex parented families through the eyes of their children. She says she plans to enter the political debate, but in a quiet way, as she believes her country's politicians and the public need a break from the clamour on both sides of the debate. "I will be a little more proactive," she says. "I think people on both sides of the debate are fighting for it quite adamantly and the public are quite sick of it so maybe some have given up the fight a little bit. And our politicians are backed into a corner so what we want to do with a new film on this that we have just created is to sit down in a non-threatening environment and share it with MPs, to help them learn more about the issues they will have to vote on which is a conscience vote and is likely to happen within the next six months. By taking it out of the public sphere we can give politicians the time to think about it."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Saturday, 21st February 2015 - 11:50am