Amending the Marriage Act July-Sept 2004

Update: September 2004

When the Australian government introduced the 'Marriage Legislation Amendment Bill' to the parliament it passed the House of Representatives but the Senate sent the Bill to a Committee. The Committee called for submissions (see below).

A total of 13,769 submissions were received. The vast majority, estimated by the Secretariat to be around 90%, supported the Bill, which defined marriage as being between a man and a woman and ruled that same-sex ‘married' overseas. This was an incredible response from the Christian community!

The government introduced a modified Bill which did not include prohibiting adoption by same-sex couples. At the National Marriage Forum on 4 August, Nicola Roxon - shadow Attorney General for the ALP said that Labor would pass the modified Bill if the government re-introduced the Bill to the parliament. Click here for her speech.

This modified Bill - the Marriage Amendment Act - was passed by the Senate on Friday 13 September 2004 .

Original Report: July 2004

The Australian federal government put up the Marriage Legislation Amendment Bill to amend the Marriage Act to ensure that marriage was between a man and a woman and that same-sex couples who travelled overseas to ‘marry’ (for example in Canada) could not have their ‘marriages’ recognised in Australia.
Three same sex couples had already declared their intention to take their cases to the family Court.

The Bill also included clauses to prevent same-sex couples adopting children from overseas (local adoption is a state issue).

Labor, the Greens and the Democrats combined to stall the proposed amendment to the Marriage Act in the Senate. The Bill has been sent to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee for an inquiry and report to the Senate by 7 October.

NOW IT IS YOUR TURN to have a say
- Submissions due by 30 July 2004

The Senate has called for submissions (these can simply be a letter).
For full details, click here for the Senate Committee website - this has the Bill, Explanatory Memorandum, etc and Terms of reference...

They are asking for your input - PLEASE give them the clear message that you support marriage STAYING exclusively as a relationship between a male and a female.

Homosexuals don’t really want marriage - in countries where it has been legalised there has been a very low rate of same-sex couples actually using the legislation.

Often they want to remove the distinctive heterosexual nature of marriage - to gain what they see as the 'final approval' of society by being given the right to 'marry' even though few actually proceed to 'marry'.

The ALP has already suggested it will give same-sex ‘couples’ a type of ‘civil union’ relationship, giving all the rights of ‘married’ couples - the Greens and Democrats, if given the balance of power, will give full marriage rights by changing the Marriage Act to include same-sex couples.

In your submission, you need to address the three main areas:

• Support the amendment that would "define marriage as the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life"
• Support the proposal "to confirm that unions solemnised overseas between same sex couples will not be recognised as marriages in Australia; and
• Support the proposal to "amend the Family Law Act 1975 to prevent intercountry adoptions by same sex couples under multilateral or bilateral agreements or arrangements."

PLUS, we MUST address Point 5 in the "Points to consider" on the Committee website:

5. the consequences of the Bill becoming law and those remaining avenues available to the Commonwealth for legally recognising inter-personal relationships including same-sex relationships;

WE must state that we do NOT accept any form of legal recognition for same-sex relationships including 'civil unions' for same sex relationships.

Same-sex relationships are inherently WRONG according to God’s Word, and according to ‘nature’, they must not be endorsed in any way.

The Senate web page also six points for 'consideration' on their website, that the Senate has asked people to address in their submissions. These were only posted on the website recently, and are very biased towards the homosexual position.

Email them to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it - You must include your name, postal address and phone number on the email submission.

If you want extra information about the proposed review click here for the Senate Committee web page that has all the details.