Today (that being Saturday Down Under), the Australian Labor Party Conference voted resoundingly by voice vote to change the Marriage Act defining marriage in Australia as between a man and a woman to be inclusive of same-sex marriage.
Insofar as Labor controls the government, and Australia has a parliamentary system, you might think this would mean a change to the Marriage Act itself in the not-to-distant future. But you would be wrong.
The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, is personally opposed to same-sex marriage (for no rational reason that anyone can discern -- "she is a left-wing progressive, a woman who herself has never been married, and is not religious," as The Syndey Morning Herald puts it). Furthermore, some Labor Members of Parliament are so adamantly against marriage equality that they have threatened to defect on the vote should they be called on to cast their ballot along party lines. Acording to Labor Party rules, this would force the Party to disown them, thereby no longer giving Labor and their allies in Parliament a majority, one which they now hold by the barest of margins (76-73).
To avoid forcing the Prime Minister to have to call up and vote for a bill she is opposed to, and to prevent a possible collapse of the government, the Labor Party reached a compromise: a "conscience vote" on marriage equality, with each Labor Party MP voting as they please, was approved narrowly 208-184.
The catch is that the opposition Liberal party (aka, the Conservatives), will not go along with a "conscience vote" on this matter. Tony Abbott, the leader of the Liberals, has repeatedly stated that he will require his membership to vote as a bloc opposing any amendment to the Marriage Act legalizing same-sex marriage.
So everything, and nothing, has changed. The Labor Party is now officially in support of marriage equality, whereas before they were officially against; but they are helpless -- in the face of their leader's recalcitrance and their threadlike hold on control of Parliament -- to actually enact legislation to that effect.
It's not at all clear how marriage equality can be won in the next few years given this standoff (although, with up to 80% of young people in Australia supporting it, a sense of inevitability starts to kick in for the long term).
Taking an actual conscience vote seems pointless in light of the Liberals' refusal to participate. And putting pressure on the Liberals to allow a conscience vote seems about as practical as trying to put pressure on US Republican members of Congress to vote to raise taxes. The next election is likely two years away (the deadline for the next election to be held is November, 2013); only a more significant Labor majority and the removal of Gillard by someone supportive of marriage equality (or Guillard's road-to-Damascus-like conversion) seems like it will break this impasse. Further, there is no guarantee Labor will even win the next election.
And yet a supermajority of Australians support marriage equality (at least 60%), and an even higher percentage see it as inevitable.
While it may be true that
VOX POPULI, VOX DEI
in Australia it's still
VOX GILLARD, VOX DEI
Here's the latest Marriage Equality Video from Australia, "It's Time", which has racked up more than three million views on YouTube, and put further pressure on Labor Party to do what they just did: support marriage equality. Enjoy!