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Australia: New bill to legalise same sex marriage

Last Wednesday Senator David Leyonhjelm from the Liberal Democratic Party introduced a bill into the Senate to remove the concept that marriage is between a man and a woman. The bill would allow any Australian to marry regardless of ‘sex, sexual orientation and gender identity’. His extreme libertarian ideology assumes all men are islands and that there is no such thing as society. Fortunately there are many members of Australia’s federal parliament who are for marriage as it is. This means Senator Leyonhjelm’s bill faces an uncertain future. So why is it being brought up? Mr Abbott promised pre-election to empower his party to decide whether the coalition has a conscience vote on same-sex marriage, and Senator Leyonhjelm believes there is enough support for that to occur.