Australia's anti-gay Prime Minister

[fuckmuscle52]

This article is currently on the site of www.pinknews.co.uk:

Australian government propose new homophobic law

The plan by the Australian Prime minister is to introduce new legislation into the Australian Parliament during this election year that will:
<< "To amend the Family Law Act 1975 to indicate that adoptions by same sex couples of children from overseas under either bilateral or multilateral arrangements will not be recognised in Australia." >>

So that any family with two same sex parents arriving in Australia will automatically be reduced to a one parent family under Australian law.

How discriminatory and disruptive for families will that be eh????

What a contrast to the British scene, where anti-discrimination legislation is being passed into law as early as April of this year.

It is my concern that this Prime Minister, urged on by conservative religious leaders, would really like to re-criminalise homosexuality.

 

[kallipolis]

I believe that the last paragraph of this article is not supported by anything of substance, rather by conjecture based on political prejudice.

I agree that the prospect of such new legislation on adoptions is an abominable idea, unworthy of Australia. I hope that this bill is killed at an early stage.

I understand that the Australian Labor Party is currently favourite, to win the next Federal General Election.

 

[OtterJoq]

How can a nation with the gayest-looking lifeguards on Earth be that discriminatory?

 

[sparky95]

The really weird thing about all this anti-gay stuff is that there doesn't seem to be any support for it in the general community. The PM seems to be pursuing it for his own personal reasons.... All I can think is that he believes that it will get him brownie points with George Bush, which is deeply, deeply odd. I mean would GWB really give a shit about it anyway?

 

[gazzax2]

John howard is worsat prime minster australia has ever had, wait he's not as bad as Robert Menzies - that man just wouldn't piss off, buy anyway people who stick up for john howard are dilusional, and anyone who voted for has no right to complain coz they are complete dickhead.

 

[paradoxical]

In 50 years time, Australians will look back at Mr Howard as one of the worst Leaders our country has ever had. With a combination of his anti-terrorism/sedition laws, his Industrial Relations reforms, his lack of response to Global Warming/Climate Change and his utter homophobia, he has shown himself to be a short-sighted, bigoted idiot.
I cannot wait for the day when we get PM Kevin Rudd. He's not my first choice, but anyone is better than that monkey we have now! And Julia is going to be our first female PM!
In regards to this topic, nothing he does can surprise me anymore...But it warms my heart that the Australian public are being a better opposition than our Opposition know how to be...

 

[kallipolis]

I wonder why so many Australians keep voting for PM John Howard and his party.

 

[andysayshi]

Why you keep reelecting that asshole? That´s a shame, I allways thought that Australia was one of the most liberal countries in the world, guess I was wrong?

I had planned to go there with my husband on vacation, but now I don´t want to. Do they recognize homosexual married couples, or I will have a problem at the airport?

Do anybody knows what´s the situation in New Zealand?

Very much like the current US situation, State Governments in Australia have shown themselves to be progressive and understanding of same-sex relationships, but the current Federal Liberal Government is acting against the State attempts to equalize straight and gay couple recognition.

In my state of NSW, State law gives same sex couples virtually equal legal status with straight de-facto relationships. Federal intervention is attempting to undermine this. Exactly the same thing has been happening in the US under the Bush Administration. (It's no surprise that Bush and Howard are best buddies!)

You have absolutely nothing to fear by visiting Australia - Sydney is generally one of the most gay-friendly cities in the world. Certainly at any major airport you can comfortably be recognised as a couple without fear of discrimination. (Like any country, you probably don't want to walk hand in hand in isolated country towns...) The current legal issue is more about the future of Australia, and speaks volumes of how arrogant and out-of-touch our current Federal Government is with the general population.

More information here.

Please, come to Australia - we love visitors! And if you choose not to, please send an email to Tourism Australia and tell them why you are not!

COntact Tourism Australia

 

[texpatriot]

It must be an election year in Australia.

If you can't stand for something then you've got to distract attention from your inability to govern by pandering to the fears of others.

What an ass-hole!

Let's hope that the progressives within Australia take their country back!

 

[_AJ_]

It must be an election year in Australia.

how did you know?

unfortunately my vote for labor wont do much this year since we have just moved to a safe liberal seat oh well we can always hope

 

[sparky95]

how did you know?

unfortunately my vote for labor wont do much this year since we have just moved to a safe liberal seat oh well we can always hope

He he I'm beginning to think that there maybe no safe liberal seats this year.

 

[Jay.Jay]

He he I'm beginning to think that there maybe no safe liberal seats this year.

We can but hope... Queensland seats are going to be critical, so keep up the anti-Howard line

On the broader anti-gay streak in the present Australian government, it's not about sucking up to Shrub, it's about dog whistling to a few right-wing Christian nutjobs. Unfortunately, there are quite a few that fit that description in Cabinet.

 

[_AJ_]

He he I'm beginning to think that there maybe no safe liberal seats this year.

a boy can dream i guess

but a swing of over 10% would be unlikely

 

[rotary]

So that any family with two same sex parents arriving in Australia will automatically be reduced to a one parent family under Australian law.

How discriminatory and disruptive for families will that be eh????

That's terrible. Is there enough opposition in the Australian parliament to block the passing of this amendment?

 

[_AJ_]

That's terrible. Is there enough opposition in the Australian parliament to block the passing of this amendment?

in an election year it is doubtful

 

[TriBi]

Well, judging by the current opinion polls - John Howard is in REAL trouble.

He is a very wily politician, and you can never write him off - but ATM he seems to have met his match in Kevin Rudd who, in a couple of short months as leader, has taken the opposition to a clear lead in the two party preferred vote and overtaken Howard as "Preferred PM" - something that no other opposition leader has been able to do for I can't remember how long.

Rudd is also very shrewd, extremely media savvy and an excellent 'manager'. As a former diplomat he is more than an equal for Howard in terms of Foreign Affairs - and his experience in Finance in the Qld State Government clearly demonstrates he has strength in that area as well.

Right now he has the PM very much on the back foot - and Howard is making blunders that are tarnishing his own image and only adding to Rudd's popularity.

I sincerely hope this will continue - I have been of the opinion for a long time that Rudd was the right person to be opposition leader - and right now he is doing an excellent job. I can't claim to be a fan of Julia Gillard (his deputy) but I think he has a lot of strength and hopefully will not be troubled by her naked ambition. He has also made some good and popular appointments to his front bench and at the moment is definitely "making the running" and leaving Howard in his wake.

As far as "Gay issues" go - I'm not sure that Kevin Rudd will be everybodies darling (he is a strong family person with very much a 'Christian' background) but I believe he will be much more tolerant of diversity than Howard - if only because he realises that it will be poltically expedient to do so.

I hope that Kevin Rudd continues to gain momentum - despite the fact that I respect Howard for being a strong leader and a good economic manager - there are just far too many things he and his party have done over the last few years with which I VERY strongly disagree. It is time for a change - and Rudd inspires a confidence in me that Beazley, Crean and Latham never could.

 

[ZeroPoint84]

I wonder why so many Australians keep voting for PM John Howard and his party.

The problem is two-fold - firstly for the last 5 years or so the Opposition party in Aus has been so weak, and has also been plagued with factional in-fighting, so the party looks so divided and unstable. This year is the first in a long while that Labor has actually looked like a force to be reckoned with. But we'll see what happens as the year progresses - my hope is that they stay the current course and focus on what's best for the party, rather than individual aspirations.

The second problem is that John Howard and his party are very tricky - the last election we had they spun out a whole bunch of ads telling the country that if they elected a Labor government interest rates would spiral out of control - a claim they had no right to make, however it ended up winning them the election. While the Liberals have no social policies, they have managed the economy well over the last few years (although they have been very lucky, and many believe they have reaped the rewards of economic policies laid by previous Labor governments). So when they ran these ads (basically a fear campaign) telling people that they'd be paying more for their loans under a Labor government, the greed of the electorate was too overwhelming and so the Liberals won again. I saw people such as my mother who'd never voted Liberal before (and had actually said she'd vote for Labor as they were the ones opposed to VSU, important for my sister and I as (then) university students) voting for John Howard. It was such a depressing and frustrating time. I remember going back to uni the Monday after the election feeling so hopeless.

anywho... I am very happy Rudd is going so well, I'm glad Beazley stepped down as there really was no way he'd ever be Prime Minister. And yes while he's a Christian, he wrote last year that religion in this country was focussing far too much on private issues such as sexuality and abortion and not enough on real Christian issues such as poverty. So there's hope for him. And let's face it - anyone would be better than our current government.

 

[kallipolis]

Thank you for that explanation. I note that John Howard is much more skilled at playing politics than current ALP politicians.