Doug PollardNotes from a disposable asset
Fooled ya! We're really Cilla Black & Ken Dodd!
Once again the Labor Party, faced with an issue of principle, opts to have no principles at all, and will in all probability have a conscience vote on extending marriage equality to all Australians.
Marriage equality is one of those issues all politicians hate, because it is not susceptible to a compromise solution. They have to take sides.
The issue is very simple.
Either all Australians are good enough to marry the partner of their choice, in accordance with the deepest wishes of their hearts, or some are not, and must be excluded.
Like all pollies faced with an irreconcilable problem, Julia Gillard is trying to have her cake and eat it too.
On the one hand she signals that as far as she’s concerned, we’re not good enough, that marriage ought to be reserved for one man and one woman, while on the other hand, she indicates she will graciously permit some of her MPs to think and vote otherwise, knowing full well they will lose a conscience vote in parliament anyway.
Jeez Jules, that’s really generous, giving something you know in advance to be worthless. It quite takes my breath away! Is that how they do things in Lalor? Remind me not to visit.
As if that wasn’t insult enough, she also implies that even if, against all odds, her party is foolish enough to ignore her wishes and make full equality for all Australians binding party policy, she won’t do anything about it.
She’ll just ignore it.
And if the Greens dare to bring on their private members bill for equal marriage, she’ll oppose it. Purely personally, of course.
Come off it Julia, you’re PM, even if you haven’t quite got the hang of it yet. You of all people cannot act ‘personally’ in a matter like this.
What you’re doing, in your signature convoluted, backhanded fashion, is sending a signal that, apart from a few crocodile tears, Labor LGBTI members and supporters are pretty much worthless to you. Disposable. Not fit to be full citizens and not even especially valued as Labor supporters.
Regardless of how you try to hide it, all your arguments against same-sex, intersex and transgender marriages come down to your personal distaste for us: in your eyes, we are not fit and proper people to found a family and raise children.
Presumably you have calculated that, faced with the alternative - the Catholic Ultra who leads the Liberals – gays and lesbians ,trans bi and intersex, our parents, children, relatives, employers and employees, will all hold our noses and stick with you in spite of your manifest contempt.
I wouldn’t count on it.
Some of us would prefer an honest opponent to a devious friend. At least we have a pretty clear idea of what he will serve up, even if it’s wormwood and bitter gall.
With you and your party, we never know what’s coming next – a bag of luscious lollies, or a handful of laxatives, emetics and anti-depressants.
Of late, some of us thought we detected some signs of a spine in you. Alas, it was another of those self-delusions the Labor Party relies on to keep us voting for you.
Let’s be frank here. If you had the will, the heart and stomach, you could take charge of this issue, do the necessary deals, and have equal marriage to your credit in the lifetime of this parliament. It would not be easy, but nor was the mining tax. Nor the carbon tax. Pokies reform. Plain cigarette packs.
Everyone said you couldn’t do it, but you knew you could and you have. Because you put your mind to it. Because you cared enough.
But now you have carelessly discarded us as not important enough to be worth the same kind of effort.
Fine. You have made your (unmarried) bed and presumably are happy to lie in it. Just don’t expect to lie there easy, or for long. An election awaits.
