Senate debates

Wednesday, 22 June 2011

Petitions

Marriage

To the Honourable the President and Members of the Senate in Parliament assembled:

In support of Marriage as currently defined in the Marriage Act (1961)

Noting the following:

        We, the undersigned petitioners, call on the Senate to support the definition of marriage as currently contained within the Marriage Act (1961)

        by Senator Barnett (from 7,627 citizens).

        To the Honourable the President and Members of the Senate in Parliament assembled:

        The petition of the undersigned shows:

        On November 15th 2010 in the House of Representatives the following motion was passed: "This House calls on all parliamentarians, consistent with their duties as representatives to gauge their constituents' views on ways to achieve equal treatment for same sex couples including marriage". This petition is a response to that motion. Your petitioners ask/request that the Senate:

        Note that the undersigned support the current definition of marriage as outlined in the Marriage Act 1961 namely: "marriage means the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life", and that we call upon the Senate to act in defence of this definition of marriage and not to permit recognition of any other form of relationship to be considered equal to marriage as defined above.

        by Senator Barnett (from 12 citizens).

        Petitions received.