Marriage Privatization: The Realities, and How We Can Overcome Them

I first advocated for marriage privatization back in 2004. (Just google it if you don't know what it means) It is the idea that the government just doesn't legislate for 'marriage' at all - it will be a cultural and religious thing not mentioned by law. There are two forms of this movement - one is to transfer all current marriages to civil union status, and transfer all laws associated with marriage to civil unions. I support this form of marriage privatization, since it is much simpler and not socially radical - there is no change to the everyday functioning of society. The other form is doing away with a one-size-fits-all status altogether, and everyone instead negotiates their own martial contracts which are lodged with the government. Somehow I think that's a radical change people won't appreciate.

But the point is academic anyway. The current structure of the law means that there is no convenient way of mutual recognition of anything not called a marriage between different countries, and between different state and federal governments within one country. So we just don't have the legal infrastructure for that yet. Maybe one day we will, but until then, we cannot proceed with marriage privatization in law.

Anyway, that's unfortunate, because I happen to be a staunch believer in marriage privatization. So what can we do? There are several things we can do to slowly kick-start the process.

1) Cultivate a cultural view of marriage that is distinct and separate from the legal status of marriage. One word can have multiple meanings - like a bill can be a bill of parliament or a cutting instrument. Of course, the cultural marriage should be cherished above and beyond how we view the legal status of marriage.

2) Governments can offer parallel civil union or registered partnership systems, open to all couples, with the full set of rights and responsibilities found in legal marriages.

3) Encourage respect for marriage as a cultural institution, rather than as a legal contract.

4) Demand respect for all relationships and marriages, no matter how they are registered with the government, or not.

5) Respect that there are different views of marriage, and celebrate them all. For example, a church may believe marriage really means those married under its laws, whilst gay and lesbian citizens may believe in gay and lesbian marriage even if their church or government does not. Both these views can exist, and co-exist peacefully, we believe.

Rudd and Albo, Three More Years!

The Australian election is coming up. My friends, in life there aren't many easy choices, but here is one. I believe we have the clearest choice in the country's history this time. In my opinion, anybody not voting for the return of the Rudd government is a fool - there's no nice way of putting this.

Here are my reasons:

1) The Rudd government has been a good custodian of our country. Its economy has weathered the global financial crisis well, and I trust that under the Rudd government we will weather any future challenges, including the end of the mining boom, very well.

2) Kevin Rudd and Anthony Albanese support marriage equality. In contrast, Tony Abbott has called it a 'fashion', and even prevented his colleagues from voting for it! Tony Abbott is every bit a right wing extremist who will take away freedom, equality and opportunity when it fits the right wing agenda.

3) Tony Abbott's sister is in a committed lesbian relationship, and hopes to get married. If Abbott does not even care about his sister, will he care about the rest of the country?

4) Tony Abbott's economic policies hurt families. Workchoices and 15% GST are possibilities, and to see their impact one only needs to look at the original GST and Workchoices as implemented by the Howard government. Going even further, Tony Abbott has talked about changing the already meagre Newstart allowance so that potentially people will have to move miles away from their families to work in mines and farms when they are not even trained to do so! An Abbott government will be toxic for families. For this reason alone it is scary.

5) The 'direct action' environmental policy is not only inferior to the Rudd government's Emissions Trading Scheme, it is also very costly and will lead to either unnecessary new taxes or cuts in spending - ultimately, it is families who get hurt. All this so that the Coalition can have a 'different' policy!

6) Team Abbott have been playing dirty, in my opinion. They have released policies which do not add up in a hope to get over the line. The Murdoch-led media has also been very biased, hellbent on getting Abbott into office. One widely suspected reason is because Murdoch fears the government's National Broadband Network will affect the business of Foxtel. All this cannot be rewarded. We need to show them that this is a democracy, and WE are in charge.

7) Tony Abbott has also repeatedly singled out the Greens as an 'extremist party', probably because they wouldn't support him to be PM in the 2010 hung parliament negotiations. There are some things the Greens do that I will not agree to, but I believe the Liberals under Abbott are much more extreme than the Greens. Even under Howard they had Workchoices, something more extreme than any Green policy will ever be. And Abbott looks more of a right wing extremist than even Howard. The pot calling the kettle black is just not on.

Therefore, isn't it a clear cut choice?