THE national marriage equality campaign has won support from Redland City councillors, Tracey Huges, Paul Golle and Peter Mitchell.
The trio attended the National General Assembly of local governments in Canberra, voting in support of a motion by Darwin City Council to support marriage equality.
The motion proposed that the NGA “call on the federal government and federal parliament to treat with dignity and respect all members of the community, regardless of gender or sexuality, by supporting changes to the Marriage Act to achieve marriage equality for same-sex couples”.
Cr Golle said the group had to vote as a bloc but he believed the issue was not of major consequence nationally and it should be resolved quickly.
“We need to get on with it,’’ he said.
Bayside Brisbane Welcomes Marriage Equality group spokesman Mike Burge said he was glad that bayside areas were so well represented on such an important human rights issue.
“It was great to see that there was such a relevant and timely way for our councillors to apply the petition results we recently got in this region, showing that it is politically safe for our local, state and federal representatives to support marriage equality everywhere they go,’’ he said.
"We presented our petition to our federal MP, Andrew Laming, at the Redland Chamber of Commerce meet the candidates event recently.
“He remained unmoved by our efforts to show him that the majority of this region supports a change to the federal Marriage Act to allow equal access to same-sex couples, but I encouraged him to sit with the petition, look though the signatures on it, and come to terms with the message it sends him."
The group has been having a running battle with Mr Laming over the level of support or otherwise.
It started its petition after Mr Laming said in June last year when asked about including same-sex marriage in his annual survey on constituents’ views: “You can’t go anywhere in a community in Australia and ask this question about the definition of same-sex marriage without getting heated responses on both sides.
“I’ve asked my electorate every year this question and it comes back almost 50–50.’’
Mr Laming said he would vote in Parliament on marriage equality according to how his electorate dictated but has declined to reveal his personal view, saying he would appropriate this to the community.
Mr Burge said almost 1000 corporate entities supported marriage equality in Australia, including many big businesses operating in the local area.
He said more marriages meant more business for bayside wedding venues and honeymoon destinations, more business for our wedding hire companies and cake creators, more business for our jewellers, florists and celebrants.
We all know weddings are great for business, and there's some great honeymoon destinations in Bayside Brisbane that would benefit from an increase in their customer base."
