NSW parliament acting by stealth to change the meaning of the marriage relationship

The Anglican Church, Diocese of Sydney, is dismayed that the Upper House of the New South Wales Parliament recently rejected amendments to the Miscellaneous Acts Amendment (Relationships) Bill 2002. The proposed amendments would have preserved the distinctiveness of the marriage relationship in the Acts to which the Bill relates.

Diocesan Secretary, Mark Payne, said the Anglican Church had expressed no opposition to the policy of the Bill which is to give partners to de facto and same sex relationships similar rights to those of married couples under certain Acts of Parliament. Rather, the Church is concerned that the Government intends to achieve its purpose by redefining the term ‘spouse’ in the relevant Acts to include partners to all de facto relationships and same sex relationships, as well as the traditional meaning of male and female married persons.

“The policy of the Bill could easily have been achieved without compromising the traditional and common meaning of the term ‘spouse’,” Mr Payne said. “However as the Government, Greens and Democrat members refused to accept amendments to this effect, we can only conclude that it is intended to undermine the traditional understanding of the marriage relationship. This has occurred without any community consultation or debate about the significance of this redefinition.

“Our concern is that this legislation is the first step to change by stealth the community understanding of the marriage relationship, and ultimately to erode marriage so that it is generally seen as equal to de facto relationships and same sex unions,” Mr Payne said.

“In conjunction with our Roman Catholic colleagues, the Anglican Church suggested to the Attorney General and the Shadow Attorney General that the term ‘spouse’ be given the traditional meaning in the legislation, and that another term be used to describe parties in a de facto relationship,” he said. “Unfortunately our suggestion was not adopted.

“We will be carefully monitoring the progress of this Bill when it is debated in the Lower House of the State Parliament on Tuesday 17th September,” Mr Payne said.

“This matter would be viewed as of great significance by the overwhelmingly majority of members of our Church,” he continued. “We noted the amendment to the Bill was supported by Upper House Opposition and Christian Democrat members. As we are in the lead time before the next State election we will make our opposition quite clear to all our church membership if there is no amendment to the Bill in the Lower House of Parliament.

“We will be circulating a copy of this release to all our parish clergy for their information and for that of their church members,” Mr Payne concluded.

ENDS

CONTACT:
Mark Payne (w) 02 9265 1558
Margaret Rodgers (w) 02 9265 1507