I have recently drawn readers' attention to the consequences of the Miscellaneous Acts Amendment (Same Sex Relationships) Bill 2008 coming before the Parliament. I was the only person in the Upper House to send out this warning to churches, CDP members, and to ten thousand Christians who read these pages. Last week for example, I warned:
'Some of the changes that would be the result of this Bill passing are: Legitimising the female partner of a lesbian mother of an IVF child, so that her name appears on the birth certificate as the co-parent; Permitting the lesbian partner to take paternal leave with it being renamed parental leave; Removing any male's name from the birth certificate of an IVF child, or the IVF child's biological father's name, with his permission. It could also remove his name without his permission if the court so chose; Treating all de facto relationships and marriages as equivalent under the law, thereby eliminating discrimination; Discriminating against same sex couples would be illegal in all settings including housing, education, employment etc, without exemption for services run by religious organizations that believe homosexual acts should not be socially sanctioned.'
A number of readers responded that I was alarmist, that I was crying 'wolf"when there was no need to be alarmed, and two respondents criticised me for somehow or other advocating each of these points when it was quite clear I opposed them!
Well, the worst happened. Last Tuesday, on the day the Budget was delivered and everybody was busy with the Budget details, the Government pushed this Bill into the Upper House for approval. The Labor Party refused its own members the right to a conscience vote and many Christian Labor members were restrained to vote against their beliefs. The National Party spoke in support and voted unanimously to support these disastrous consequences as outlined above. The Liberal Party allowed their 'right wing religious"members the opportunity to vote and speak against it, but the Greens and Shooters Party supported it. The Greens even tried to make it worse with amendments to remove the current exemptions covering Christian Schools, churches, retirement homes and so on matters of employment of homosexuals. The debate went from early afternoon to close to midnight. I was the only member to remain in the House for the whole of the debate. Both Rev Fred Nile and myself gave long and detailed speeches, opposing this unchristian Bill. Click here
to read my complete speech.
Rev Nile also proposed an inquiry into these consequences but this was rejected overwhelmingly. The CDP then proposed a number of amendments to restore the rights of fathers to have their details on birth certificates of children born to mothers living in lesbian relationships, and to restore the term 'paternity"to the partner relationships in a number of acts and regulations. We were successful in gaining support for these amendments but when the Bill came to the final vote there were only five of us left and it was lost on voices. (i.e. everybody else made more cries of support than we five ever could against!)
We thank the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches for their expressed support but politicians received no other encouragement by way of public support from any other denomination or church leader. The people on The Fatherhood Foundation and the Australian Christian Lobby mailing lists lobbied every Parliamentarian with several hundred emails. Unfortunately every Parliamentarian on the same two days also received hundreds of emails opposing the Environmental Planning and Assessment Bill, and the Electricity Privatisation Bill. I personally opened and deleted 2,104 emails on these Bills in one day!
We now face these other Bills and more than 60 other pieces of legislation. It is legislation by exhaustion. We also now have new laws giving a number of rights to lesbians. It will not be long before we will have Bills to give the same rights to male homosexuals and giving the support of all of these other parties it will be passed. Then the Greens will be moving the abolition of exemptions on employment from all churches, Christian schools and church agencies. We had drawn a line in the sand on these issues, but we did not get the support of churches and Christians in general.
Rev The Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes, A.C., M.L.C.
Email Gordon - gordon.moyes@parliament.nsw.gov.au
