Same Sex Marriage: Don’t wait till after the Election

Posted on May 16, 2016 
Filed under Culture wars, Opinion

kevin-murray-420Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in NSW, Kevin Murray, wrote this piece in the current edition of The Pulse, the NSW Presbyterian magazine.

“Each of us should make the time to learn what each party is promising on this issue because it is one that could profoundly affect our life as a nation for many many decades.”

Full text below: 

“We all need to pay particular attention to the forthcoming Federal election. Every time there is a Federal election we each cast our vote according to the position of the parties on a range of issues. At this election we are confronted with a number of issues that impact our nation. There are things like refugees, housing affordability and the economy. Within the Presbyterian Church there is a range of perspectives on the issues such as these.

But how often do we let social policy and the social fabric of our nation determine who we vote for?

One of the key issues at the forthcoming Federal election is that of same sex marriage. The Federal Liberal-National Coalition has promised that if re-elected a plebiscite will be held to gauge the opinion of the voting public. With that in mind it’s easy to think that we should wait to consider the issue of same-sex marriage after the Federal election. But that would be a mistake. The various political parties are gearing up right now so that it will be an issue both at the election and any plebiscite that might be held.

We know for example that on polling day one of the major political parties intends to target the polling booths of the members of Parliament from all of the major parties who have declared themselves to be against same-sex marriage. Please make no mistake. This will not be your usual Federal election. The issue of same-sex marriage will be front and centre.

Please make sure that before you cast your vote you know where each of the parties stand. Each of us should make the time to learn what each party is promising on this issue because it is one that could profoundly affect our life as a nation for many many decades.

For that reason we each have a greater-than-usual responsibility to know what each party is proposing on the issue of same-sex marriage. Consider what they are each offering:

One of the things that constantly frustrates me about the level of public debate in Australia is that so often public policy is shaped by short answers and slogans. Consider the ABC television programme “Q & A”. Sometimes very good questions are asked of the panel. But sometimes the answers are quite complex and require 30 minutes of explanation in order to answer the question but the demands of time, even on the ABC, mean that sometimes complex issues are reduced to ten word answers.

We need to make sure that we are not swayed by simplistic answers and think long and hard about the issues involved. What we do will affect many generations to come.”

– Reproduced with permission from The Pulse, May–June 2016 (8.2MB PDF file).