The Marriage Day report you won’t read in the media

Australian Christian Lobby

August 2009

The time for social experimentation is over according a British pro-marriage activist who addressed a National Marriage Day breakfast attended by nearly 500 people at Parliament House in Canberra today.

“Children are the losers in an endless game of pass the partner”, London-based barrister James Bogle said, referring to the cultural decline which has led to chronic marriage and social breakdown in western society.

 “Do children relish the endless change of partners?

“The test of any social change should be whether or not it enhances or harms peoples’ lives.”

Mr Bogle said the verdict from the 1960s sexual revolution was in and it was clear the consequences had been overwhelmingly negative.

He said the cost of marriage breakdown in Britain was 20 billion pounds per year and that marriage breakdown was one of the leading pathways to poverty for children, particularly amongst the most economically disadvantaged.

The breakfast was organised by the Australian Family Association and a number of pro-family groups to “promote a renewed culture of marriage within our nation” and marked the fifth anniversary of the passing of the amendment to the Marriage Act which defined marriage between a man and a woman.

A petition signed by more than 10,000 people was presented calling on the Government to institute a national marriage day.
Former Governor General Michael Jeffery and his wife Marlena (pictured) were named inaugural marriage ambassadors for the next 12 months.

“A caring family – which provides love, guidance, care and discipline, and inculcates ethical and spiritual values – is still the most nourishing of social ‘units’; the core building block of a cohesive society,” Major General Jeffery said.

“It is often because the family structure has broken down in a community that violence and social disorder can occur.”

Major General Jeffery said more needed to be done publicly to encourage marriage “as the best way in providing the safe, loving and balanced environment all children need”.

“We train people to drive cars, to build bridges and to operate computers, yet we do little to formally train or prepare young people for ultimately the most important role of all; forming a stable and loving relationship in which children can form into stable, caring and cohesive families.”

Major General Jeffery said 48,000 divorces per year in Australia was too high particularly when an estimated 17 per cent of children are living with just one parent.

“In 1986, 62 per cent of the coupled population were married dropping to 52 per cent by 2006.

“And of the births in Australia in 2007, just 67 per cent were to parents in a registered marriage, compared to 82 per cent in 1987.”
Two gay activists attempted to disrupt the breakfast, climbing on to the stage while Senator Ursula Stephens, representing Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, was delivering her speech.

She continued to reiterate the Rudd Government’s support for marriage between a man and a woman as the protesters were ushered by security staff from the Great Hall.

Contrary to some media reports, the pair were not roughly dealt with or called “filthy faggots”, as this correspondent can attest.