Prime Minister Julia Gillard must show leadership and stand up against the greens and hard left, by coming out strongly against same-sex marriage. If she doesn’t, she will be deserting the core, blue collar Labor voters, who are not in favour of same-sex marriage, and who already feel betrayed by Labor, after Prime Minister Gillard broke her promise to not bring in a carbon tax, Senator Boswell said.

The Prime Minister on August 20, 2010 confirmed her commitment to the Marriage Act, she stated that “she now rules out any change in her opposition to same-sex marriage during the life of her Government.  She said she appreciated our heritage as a Christian country and believed that “the Marriage Act had a special status in our country.”

Australians relied on this commitment before casting their vote at the election last year. The Prime Minister now has an obligation to the Australian people to honour this commitment.
If she doesn’t then she will lose the trust of thousands of blue collar Labor voters, who don’t want same-sex marriage, and who already feel betrayed by the government when it broke its promise and brought in a carbon tax which threatens the livelihoods of so many workers.

These people don’t want gay marriage but they do want to put food on the table for their families.

Julia Gillard needs to stand up and urge the members of the right in Labor, such as AWU secretary Paul Howes, to stand with her, and vote against same-sex marriage otherwise Labor will be showing its voters it just doesn’t care anymore.

Already because of Labor’s broken promise regarding the carbon tax, Mr Howe’s members will be hurt financially. 

He failed to stop the Carbon Tax, Paul Howes must now stand up for his members and not allow the rights of the family to be threatened. 

Changes to the Marriage Act would undermine the principle that the family is the basis of Australian society and could pull apart this very fabric. It could also jeopardise the right to free speech, another right union members hold dear.

As recently as June this year Queensland Doctor, David van Gend was the subject of a complaint to the Anti-Discrimination Commission of Queensland for comments he made in a public forum on the issue of same-sex parents.

His crime was to express his views that a child deserves a mother. The fact that his comments could trigger a compulsory action under anti-discrimination law is a cause of major concern and a sign of things to come.

If Julia Gillard really cares about Labor voters, if she really cares about keeping what little reputation Labor has intact, she will show leadership and stand up against same-sex marriage and urge others to do so to, otherwise we could see a policy come into Parliament that has the potential to be destructive to Australian society, Senator Boswell said.

ENDS