MEDIA RELEASE
FESTIVAL OF LIGHT AUSTRALIA  
24 APRIL 2007
 
** Proposed Victorian relationships register would undermine marriage **
 
"Diluting the status of marriage - by including all sorts of other relationships in the Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages - would be a disaster," Peter Stevens said today.
 
Peter Stevens is the Victorian state officer for the family values advocacy group Festival of Light Australia. 
 
"Marriage is the only couple relationship that society should legally recognise - because marriage is so important for society's future," Peter Stevens said.  "Studies show that children do best when raised by their married biological parents."
 
Mr Stevens said that any proposal to expand the Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages to register other relationships such as homosexual or de facto heterosexual relationships necessarily undermines marriage.  "Society has a vital interest in supporting marriage - a public, lifelong, exclusive commitment of one man and one woman," he said.
 
Mr Stevens pointed to research in countries which have experimented with legal recognition of homosexual relationships for some years now.  "In general, the result of this experiment has been to lower the marriage rate and in particular, the rate of births within marriage - so that more children are born into fragile de facto relationships and do most of their growing up in a fatherless household," he said.
 
Mr Stevens warned that the purpose of such a register could not be disguised by including non-sexual domestic relationships as well as cohabiting homosexual and heterosexual relationships.  "Most non-sexual partners do not want to be included," he said.  "The push is coming from the homosexual lobby.  They have made it very clear that a relationships register would be the first step towards homosexual 'marriage' and the right to adopt babies."
 
The Tasmanian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages has separate registers for "significant" partners (with consanguinity restrictions the same as for marriage) and "caring" partners (ie non-sexual co-dependants).  So far, no caring partners have been registered.  Of the relatively small number of registered significant partners, four have already revoked their registration.
 
"Legal recognition of this 'marriage-lite' and 'divorce-lite' system would undermine marriage and be a disaster for Victorian children," Peter Stevens said.
 
For more information contact:
Peter Stevens - phone 0413 467 831, or Richard Egan - phone 0416 148 008
 
Festival of Light Australia
GPO Box 9894
MELBOURNE  VIC  3001     
Phone: 1300 365 965