Wentworth wants weddings

Thirty politicians gave speeches on gay marriage and civil-unions in federal parliament last month, including local member for Wentworth Malcolm Turnbull.

Federal MPs were invited to gauge the opinions of their electorates nationwide after a motion from The Greens’ MP Adam Bandt in November last year. The speeches were an opportunity to report the findings.

Mr Turnbull did not give an opinion and instead spoke about the views of Wentworth constituents taken from an online survey conducted earlier this year.

Of those surveyed almost 90 per cent believed either gay marriage or civil unions should be legalised. Those who were supportive of civil unions but opposed to gay marriage commonly said: “Same-sex couples should have equal rights in terms of fiscal matters and equal rights generally, that there should be no discrimination.”

Mr Turnbull went on to quote local community members’ views including Dr Alex Wodak, Director of the Alcohol and Drug Service at St Vincent’s Hospital since 1982.

Dr Wodak wrote in the survey “I have spent the last 30 years in efforts to try and reduce the harms of HIV. We should also do everything we can to help gay couples stay together to protect public health.”

Adrian Bartels, Chairman of the Potts Point Partnership and Liberal candidate for Sydney in the last state election, said Mr Bandt’s push for more political discussion on the issue was badly timed.

“Doing so before the votes are there to see it through, meaning it will most likely fail, will keep it off the federal parliamentary agenda for many more years,” Mr Bartels said.

As one of the few openly gay politicians in Australia, Mr Bartels supports both civil unions and marriage for same-sex couples.

“It is not acceptable for our society to, on the one hand, claim that marriage is an important and respected social institution and then, on the other hand, deny it to an entire section of Australian society.

“If same sex couples are willing to commit – for life, and to the exclusion of all others, our secular state should afford them the same legal recognition,” he said.

Of the 2,333 Wentworth constituents surveyed, almost a third were in favour of gay marriage, 17 per cent weren’t supportive of gay marriage but favoured civil unions and 7 per cent were against both.

Mr Turnbull’s office made no further comment on his platform on gay marriage.