Toblerone

Join Date 01/2005

Australian senators spit in the face of democracy

Civil unions in ACT Australia

I'm mainly writing this to alert all Australian to the disintergration of the democract right of people in the Northern Territory and the ACT and the potential threat to the democratic rights of all Australians. This needs action NOW because our government has gone power mad. If we act maybe we can get the response that was given to the Snowy Hydro sale. People power does work.

This article starts with the story of a law that was overturned undemocratically in the ACT. I should point out that this isn't the first time it has happened, it also happened with euthanasia laws in the Northern Territory. It is legal but it is by no means ethical for them to act in this way.

Firstly I know a representative democracy isn't really a true democracy to begin with. In a true democracy we would all get a say on every decision the government makes. However I accept that it is about as close as you get to true democracy and it is probably impractical to have what I call true democracy anyway without completely decentralising government (though that may not be a bad idea, but it's a topic for another day!). So I accept that from time to time you'll vote for someone expecting them to do one thing and they'll do another because another person can never truly represent all your opinions (or beause they are lying bastards). At least you can cast a protest vote at the next election or protest via letters and so on. However where I live even this closest facsimile of democracy has completely failed. In this article I am calling on you to defend the rights of fellow Australians who can no longer appeal to their local represenatives to help them.

In the ACT the government passed laws so that we could have Civil Unions for same sex couples. We made it it very clear that they'd be Civil Unions not marriages. The government went to the Governor-General and had our law over turned because they believe it conflicts with federal laws that prevent same sex marriages. The worst thing was when our Attorney-General asked for specific points in the Civil Unions bill that could be ammended to make it compatible they refused to tell him, instead merely giving him a general outline. Essentially they are worried that we will amend it enough to pass the bill and they won't have a legal leg to stand on. In summary our government is comprised of a bunch of homophobic totalitarian fuckwits.

Not one person responsible for the decision was voted for by the people of ACT:

1) The ACT didn't vote for the current Federal Liberal Government.
2) We are the only place in Australian that voted for a republic so we didn't even want a Governor-General (and nobody gets to choose the GG anyway apart from the PM). The PM chose the most conservative Christian GG he could. The ACT is one of the most small "l" liberal territories there is so the GG certainly doesn't represent us.
3) The local government won overwhelmingly and had mentioned the civil unions thing as part of their platform so there is no debate about whether they have a mandate to bring in their laws in the first place.

So this decision is plain undemocractic any way you look at it. I can't punish anybody for this decision by voting differently at the next election because everybody that I actually voted for has done the right thing. Basically we can only hope that people outside the ACT care enough to support us. Getting people to care about Canberrans can be tough when every single government decision seems to be blamed on us. The news reporters always say "Canberra decided today.." instead of "The government decided today.." and I think it makes some non-canberras think canberra=government government=arseholes therefore canberrans=arseholes. We didn't even vote for this freaking government and we get blamed for their crap! We are just ordinary people who happen to live in the same town as parliment house, it isn't like we have a town meeting everyday where we decide how we'd like to piss people off next. We don't deserve to be treated like second class citizens just because we live in the national capital.

Some of you might be wondering how our law can be overturned in the first place. Well we are in a bad position because we are a Territory not a State. Until relatively recently the ACT didn't have self-government. If we'd been a state we could have taken the decision to the High Court. As it was our only life line was the Senate. They put forward a motion to disallow the government's action in asking the governor general to overturn the bill. The problem is the government controls the senate. In fact part of the reason they took this action in the first place was to pander to the conservative Family First party that holds the balance of power. One of our local Senators who is actually in the government's party crossed the floor, but unfortunately it was in vain. So basically the decision about what happened with our local government's law was made by people we didn't even vote for at every step.

What really bugs me is this: I can understand homophobes perhaps being happy with the final result but how can they possibly be happy with the process. How can they be so selective about when democracy should take place? Essentially they are saying that they only believe in democracy when it leads to decisions that they agree with. If the decision to pass the civil unions bill was really unpopular the government would have been voted out in the next election or at least receive a protest vote and less seats. There should be situations when a law can be overturned but only in cases where human rights are being infringed upon. In this case our right to democracy has been infringed upon in the act of overturning the law. The government has used what should be a last resort measure merely to further their narrow minded agenda.

To any Australians reading this: Please write to your local Senator about this issue. Show them that you won't tolerate democratic rights being ignored for any reason. Even if you disagree with civil unions this affects you negatively too, even if you don't live in a territory. Our government is ignoring the spirit of democracy. If they don't mind doing it to us poor bastards that live in the territories, they won't mind doing it to you. They control the house of reps, the senate AND the governor general (the latter is merely a rubber stamp for the government both in his mind and the mind of the PM). They control all the checks and balances except YOU. The government is already showing signs of misusing their senate power to pass any law they want mandate or not. What the government can't ignore in the end is the will of the people but you have to be vocal before election time.

This is NOT an issue only of concern to homosexuals who want legal recognition of their relationships. This is about people having the right to have their say, the right to let a government that people voted for to pass laws without inferrence. Just ask youself: Do you want people you didn't even voted for inteferring with laws passed by people you did vote for? Do you want to live in a Clayton's democracy (the democracy your having when you not having a democracy)? If you answered no to both those questions you should DO SOMETHING. If you are a homophobe or are against civil unions for any reason you should fight for you right to have a protest vote, rather than having people assume the right to decide what's best for you. Don't cut off your nose to spite you face. Don't ignore this slap in the face to democracy simply because you may not agree with the law that was overturned. Next time the governments abuse of power and total disregard for democracy could affect YOU.

For more information see the Senate hansard on the day of the vote:

http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/senate/dailys/ds150606.pdf

It clearly shows how bigoted the government is and how disingenous it is about getting equal rights for homosexuals. This Family First speech is downright scary. Frankly it makes me sick. Write of your disaproval to the following senators who voted against the disallowing of the governments action, there is no use preaching to the converted. There people essentially voted to ignore ACT resident democratic rights:

Abetz, E.
Adams, J.
Barnett, G.
Bernardi, C.
Boswell, R.L.D.
Calvert, P.H.
Chapman, H.G.P.
Colbeck, R.
Coonan, H.L.
Eggleston, A.
Ferguson, A.B.
Ferris, J.M. *
Fielding, S.
Fierravanti-Wells, C.
Fifield, M.P.
Johnston, D.
Joyce, B.
Kemp, C.R.
Lightfoot, P.R.
Macdonald, I.
Macdonald, J.A.L.
Mason, B.J.
McGauran, J.J.J.
Minchin, N.H.
Parry, S.
Patterson, K.C.
Ronaldson, M.
Scullion, N.G.
Troeth, J.M.
Trood, R.
Vanstone, A.E.
Watson, J.O.W.
P.S. Foreigners may want to write to the UN Human Rights Commision. EDIT, the above senators' email addresses (for the rest go to: http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/senators/email.htm):
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

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I read the story already. And asked for some input and learned a lot about Territories and States in Australia. It is not unique to Australia as both Canada and the US to a degree share in not allowing Territories to hold an equal place in the government.

Good luck with your petition.

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read the story already. And asked for some input and learned a lot about Territories and States in Australia. It is not unique to Australia as both Canada and the US to a degree share in not allowing Territories to hold an equal place in the government.

I find it embarrassing that Australia will be seen as such backward nation by other countries. Even George W. Bush has said he will let individual states make up their own mind on the issue of civil unions. The idea that John Howard is more conservative than Bush is scary, not really suprising but scary.

I think our next step will be trying to make the ACT a state but I think that will be very difficult and probably a long way off.

Good luck with your petition.

Thank you

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Hey mate, I'm completely disgusted by this myself. My wife and I firmly believe the federal government and their conservative politics are pushing this country back into the 50's. I could hardly believe it when I read the ACT's decision on civil unions had been stepped by the GG.

Regarding the list of senators you included above, do you know if their email addresses are readily available as I'd love to email every single one of them to register my disgust and contempt for their lack of acknowledgement of democratic processes and for their kowtowing to both the GG and John Howard. Like you, the idea of this makes me ill.

Good one, mate. You have my complete support. If you do put a petition together, make sure you send me a copy and I'll get as many signatures as I can.

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Good one, mate. You have my complete support. If you do put a petition together, make sure you send me a copy and I'll get as many signatures as I can.

First, thanks for letting us colonials see some machinations on the land down under. Second, I would like to know more. Ok, Dyna is about as apolitical as a song. Cacto is very , but it takes a lot to get Satan himself going (sorry Toblerone, that was too good to pass up).

I understand what is happening. Hell! It is happening here, just from the other side (Courts doing it not the feds). SO I await the happenings to see how the other half lives.

Thanks for that.

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cactoblasta

Join Date 04/2004

+48

It shits me. A friend of mine was going to use this law to marry her girlfriend of the last 3 years and now she can't. No straight couple I know is as committed as those two and the federal government says their love isn't good enough. The rest of homophobic Australia is pushing in on Canberra and it's not fair at all. They should let us do what we want; after all, as you say it's not like the legislation was a surprise.

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Regarding the list of senators you included above, do you know if their email addresses are readily available as I'd love to email every single one of them to register my disgust and contempt for their lack of acknowledgement of democratic processes and for their kowtowing to both the GG and John Howard. Like you, the idea of this makes me ill.

Indeed there is:
http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/senators/email.htm

Good one, mate. You have my complete support. If you do put a petition together, make sure you send me a copy and I'll get as many signatures as I can.

Tell the truth I hadn't really though of it, I don't know where Dr Guy got that from, I thougt maybe he was just referring to getting other people involved. However I will consider it if I can figure out the logistics of it. Either way I think emails should be sent in addition to a petition. Actually letters should also be sent to the senators that supported the disallowance, they need to know they are appreciated.

In some ways long term gay partnerships seem to take more commitment than straight ones, especially since they aren't given the same rights. That's just my opinion of course, it may be total bullshit

Are you a Canberran too or is that just your friend? Do you know if your friend went to the demostration the other day (I did)?

First, thanks for letting us colonials see some machinations on the land down under. Second, I would like to know more.

I might right another article about the Civil Unions issue in Australia in general to give some context. You'll see that it isn't quite clear how much of the action was due to actual homophobia on Howard's part and how much was a cynical attempt to curry the favour of conservative christians in the senate. He's a petty little man either way, he really makes me sick.

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Hey mate, thanks for the link. I hope you don't mind but I'm forwarding your article to a number of friends along with the idea that they pass it on to as many people as they can. The more of us that hit out at this, the better. And you're right; if we send it to the Senators that supported the disallowance as well, they might get up and do something about changing it.

He's a petty little man either way, he really makes me sick.

Me too...

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cactoblasta

Join Date 04/2004

+48

Are you a Canberran too or is that just your friend? Do you know if your friend went to the demostration the other day (I did)?

I'm a Canberran too. I don't think she did - I haven't spoken to her since the weekend and she didn't mention it then. Maybe though - she does work in Civic.

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Hey mate, thanks for the link. I hope you don't mind but I'm forwarding your article to a number of friends along with the idea that they pass it on to as many people as they can.

Go ahead, that would be great.

I'm a Canberran too.

How did this escape my attention! Probably because I'm completely oblivious to most things....yeah that'd be it....

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Wow, wish I knew something about the Australian legal system. Sounds like something I should learn about. Thanks for getting me started in the right direction...

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Wow, wish I knew something about the Australian legal system. Sounds like something I should learn about. Thanks for getting me started in the right direction...

I'm glad you found it enlightening.

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To play devil's [email protected] Labor was in federally and passed a law allowing gay civil unions. A Liberal NT government then introduces and passes a law banning gay civil unions in the Northern Territory. Kim Beazley goes to the GG to have it revoked.....what would your response be?

To be honest, I think the ACT Parliament were overstepping the mark. There is a Federal Marriage Bill, and it should override the state bill because we enturst this issue to the Feds. I would like a Federal Government that had the guts to stick up to the homophobes, but as far as democracy goes, I don't think this was the encroachment of freddom. The insult to democracy comes from the fact that they are not allowing the same rights to everyone.

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