News - Oz

Australia's Capital Territory to introduce Civil Unions

Category: Marriage Equality Created on Monday, 13 August 2012 06:20 Written by Robert Manser

The ACT (Australia's Territory/State, home to the Federal Government) will move to allow civil unions after the Greens announced they would support the local Labor government in a vote.

It is expected that with their support - the Civil Unions bill should pass the legislative assembly next week, ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell indicated at the weekend. The Greens party had previously been unwilling to support ACT legislation for fear it would undermine the campaign for federally recognised same-sex marriage. Further to this - the territory has already been in a position where it enacted Civil Unions back in 2006, only to have it overturned by the Howard Government in the same year.

With over 64% of Australians now in favour of Marriage Equality (Galaxy Poll), states and territories are now making noise and moves to legislate on their own due to the Federal Government's slow pace on the issue.