—-UPDATE Thursday 19 September 2.24pm—-

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has indicated the Federal Government will seek legal advice about the ACT Government’s bill to legalise gay marriage, being debated in ACT Parliament today. He told media this morning “obviously the ACT is entitled to do what it wants within the law, and the Attorney General will be seeking legal advice on precisely how far the ACT can go on this”.

Wednesday 18th September 2013

Same sex marriage is again in the spotlight after the ACT Government announced it would be introducing legislation to legalise gay marriage this week.

The ACT law could only be overturned if both houses of Federal Parliament were able to pass a bill overruling the Territory, but this is unlikely given the current make-up of the Senate.

The Australian Christian Lobby’s Lyle Shelton told The Australian newspaper he thinks the Parliament should take action, because “it is a constitutional nonsense for a territory to be seeking to legislate in this area.”

The only other way for the law to be overruled would be through a High Court challenge, although the ACT Government says it’s had legal advice that the Assembly can legislate for same-sex marriage without conflicting with the federal Marriage Act.

In an opinion piece in The Australian today Mr Shelton said there wasn’t a mandate for change in Australia, and that the ACT Government were “capitalising on the normal disruption of a change of Federal Government”.

Despite the Australian Christian Lobby releasing a number of press releases relating to same sex marriage in the lead-up and aftermath of the election, he said the ACL has other issues it wants to bring to the fore.

“There are bigger issues for organisations such as ACL to pursue with the new government, such as its election-eve cutting of $4.5 billion in overseas aid to people in extreme poverty.”

Meanwhile, Director of Ethos: EA Centre for Christianity & Society, Gordon Preece has made these comments in response to whether or not newly sworn-in Prime Minister Tony Abbott should try and override the legislation:

“While it is a test I don’t think it’s Prime Minister Abbott’s first big test—that’s the one he failed in only having one female out of 19 ministers.

“I think the PM should take a deep breath and call the bluff of the ACT Government. Its same-sex marriage law can then be tested as to whether it technically avoids Federal marriage legislation. As Sydney University constitutional law lecturer Helen Irving says, if the ACT law tries to void Federal Marriage Law, it’s likely to fail as the Federal Marriage Law is not just a heterosexual law, it intends to cover all marriages. Then we may be able to have the larger, deeper debate about whether the state, in an act of arrogant statism, is able to not just regulate but re-define other central social institutions older and more significant than it is.”

On the question of whether change to the Marriage Act to recognise same sex marriage Gordon Preece says, “I think it’s likely that after the Abbott Government, gay marriage legislation will be implemented in Australia, and Christians should start preparing for greater separation of Church & State weddings. Compare the European model of a state registry legal wedding and then a religious or non-religious wedding service or celebration after.

“But arguments from inevitability are often used to silence people’s reservations and rush through legislation that is unsound. It may also infringe the rights of children from same-sex marriages to know their biological parents. Further it may well deny religious freedoms and rights of clergy and churches not to celebrate same-sex marriages. Some ACT same-sex marriage supporters are advocating denial of religious freedom rights and it is happening in the UK with a couple ready to sue churches refusing to marry them, despite PM Cameron’s assurances to churches.”

The ACT Government’s proposed Marriage Equality Bill is expected to be tabled in the ACT Legislative Assembly tomorrow (Thursday) morning.