I have a very beautiful niece called Bonnie, whose parents just happen to be my sister and her girlfriend. When she was born about 18 months ago, the birth mother, Linda, was deemed a single parent and qualified for a pension. This was despite the fact that she lived with my sister, Kirsty, and had done so for many years. They had reported this to Centrelink and were told that it was ‘irrelevant’ as Centrelink did not recognise same sex relationships.

Fast forward to July 1 this year, and now Centrelink has decided to recognise their relationship and LInda is no longer seen as a single parent and expect Kirsty to support  Linda and Bonnie. But at the same time they will not recognize Kirsty, as Bonnie’s other parent. So how does that work in the minds of Julia Guillard’s policy advisors? How does Kevin Rudd justify this slap in the face to love and commitment?  

The government believes that Kirsty should support her daughter and partner financially but then refuses to fully recognise her relationship with them. It’s a joke. Its inconsistent and illogical from just about any viewpoint you choose to take. Except maybe a rigid biblical one that maintains a 2,000 year old morality clause that says marriage must be between a man and a woman.

As Kevin Rudd said today “We support the removal of discrimination from same-sex couples and from de facto heterosexual couples when it comes to basic arrangements in terms of tax, superannuation and the rest, and also a nationally consistent relationships register. But when it comes to civil unions, as it is described, civil unions mean the effective amendment of the Marriage Act, and that is something we don't support.”

So Rudd wants them to be equal before the law for tax purposes but not for love.

His position ignores the majority of Australians who support equality under the law regardless of sexuality. This fact was recently demonstrated by a Galaxy poll, which showed 71 per cent of Australians believed same-sex de facto couples should be entitled to the same legal rights as heterosexual de facto couples.

Instead of acknowledging this majority view Rudd has decided to accept the views of the minority Religious Right again. Jim Wallace head of the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) said today, “Christians drew confidence at the time of the 2007 election commitment by Labor that Kevin Rudd’s personal faith position would guarantee this as an enduring policy and given Labor’s appropriate action to remove discrimination in other areas, ACL expects that commitment to remain,” said Mr Wallace.

Rudd continues to be the pin up boy of this evangelical lobby group and has announced that he will be their keynote speaker at the ACL’s national conference later this year. Meanwhile, Kirsty and Linda, both intelligent and caring adults who probably voted Labor for most of their lives are now looking around for an intelligent and caring political party to vote for.

I’ll be marching in Sydney this Saturday at the national day of action  and hope millions of others will too.  More info about the rallies can be found at www.equallove.info

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