Thu 26 Mar 2015 In: International News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Peter Westmore There’s hope the blessing a conservative Australian Catholic leader has given the New Zealand same-sex marriage of his daughter will help the fight for marriage equality in Australia. Peter Westmore is head of the National Civic Council, Australia's most active Catholic lobby group against marriage equality. He attended the New Zealand marriage ceremony of his daughter Trish Hackney-Westmore to her wife Christy Hackney-Westmore last November. He’s stated the nuptials had his blessing, saying "She always has my blessing in everything she does." However he says he still opposed marriage equality in Australia. Australian Marriage Equality national director Rodney Croome says it’s a reminder that marriage equality can affect Australian families, no matter their religion, politics or ideology. "Some people will call Mr Westmore hypocritical for opposing marriage equality, but my hope is that, like many other people of faith, he's on a journey towards supporting it,” Croome says. "The more the families of conservative Catholics like Mr Westmore are affected by Australia's discriminatory marriage laws, the more pressure there will be on Tony Abbott to allow a free vote on the issue." Meanwhile Liberal Democratic Senator David Leyonhjelm’s bid to get the Coalition to allow a conscience vote on his marriage equality bill has been delayed by months. He has withdrawn it from debate, after the Coalition failed to debate the issue. It’s now unlikely it will come up again until at least May.Federal MPs and senators have been sent more than a million emails calling for a free vote.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 26th March 2015 - 11:18am