Western Australian Labor Senator Louise Pratt will lead negotiations surrounding gay marriage at next week’s ALP National Conference.
ACT Deputy Chief Minister Andrew Barr will be working alongside Senator Pratt, representing both major factions within the Australian Labor Party. The Australian Rainbow Labor network has called for all national conference delegates to vote for a change to the current platform to support the introduction of gay marriage in Australia.
The move follows the announcement of a conscience vote on gay marriage from Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Labor has traditionally only allowed conscience votes on issues of life and death like abortion and euthanasia. Commentators have speculated that the introduction of a conscience vote will defuse the push for gay marriage to be debated at Labor’s biennial conference.
Rainbow Labor has elected and endorsed the WA Senator who comes from the party’s Left faction. In a statement, Senator Pratt said marriage equality in Australia should not be decided by a conscience vote.
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