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October 8th, 2011 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
Gay vows … Labor’s national conference could hold a conscience vote for same-sex marriage. Photo: Justin McManus
A PARLIAMENTARY conscience vote on same-sex marriage is likely to be the compromise agreed at Labor’s national conference this year.
All the Labor state and territory branches, except NSW, now support gay marriage after the Victorian Labor Party yesterday voted in support of a resolution calling on the ALP to amend the party platform.
”In a way it feels odd to get up here at a Labor state conference and talk about love but it is such an important and central foundation … to happy lives,” the co-convener of Rainbow Labor, Sarah Cole, said.
The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, supports the current definition of the Marriage Act but says she is prepared to debate the issue at the party’s conference.
Although senior members of her cabinet have spoken in support for the change, many MPs remain uncomfortable about a more liberal position. Changing the Labor Party platform to support same-sex marriage would be controversial, painting Labor as beholden to the Greens.
”The easiest way to accommodate everyone is a conscience vote,” one Labor source said.
Federal Labor’s position on asylum seekers was also criticised at yesterday’s state conference, with members calling for the offshore processing system to be scrapped.
The government’s attempts to amend the Migration Act will be thwarted in the Senate, where it will be voted down by the Greens and the Coalition. The Coalition also wants the changes to be knocked back by the House of Representatives later this week, which it would argue is tantamount to a vote of no-confidence in the government. But the outcome likely depends on West Australian Nationals MP Tony Crook, who has not decided how to vote.
Yesterday, a group of prominent figures, including former prime minister Malcolm Fraser, called on the government to process refugees onshore. In an open letter to Parliament, the group says the government should honour its commitment to take 4000 refugees from Malaysia and expand its current intake of refugees to 25,000 people.
Among the 19 individual signatories are former Australian of the Year Patrick McGorry and former NSW attorney-general and human rights advocate John Dowd.
MPs yesterday played down any suggestion Ms Gillard’s leadership would be challenged before the end of the year, citing the importance of getting the carbon and mining taxes passed by Parliament.
But there is anger at the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kevin Rudd, who some MPs wish would ”just shut up”.
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