The President of WA’s Legislative Council, Mr Barry House has declared that the WA Parliament will consider legislation for same sex marriage that was introduced by The Green’s MLC Lynn MacLaren late last year.
Ms MacLaren introduced the legislation on the last day of parliament sitting last year, but later in the day the conservative Liberal MP Nick Goiran appealed to the President of the House to consider throwing out the proposal on the grounds it was unconstitutional.
Back in December Mr Goiran argued that the High Court’s decision to throw out the ACT’s same sex marriage laws also meant that similar laws could not be introduced in Western Australia. Mr Goiran asked the President to consider withdrawing the bill when parliament returned.
“Mr President, it is my request that you provide a ruling on our return from the summer recess as to whether this bill should be withdrawn on the basis that it is inconsistent and repugnant to the Constitution and federal law,” said Mr Goiran in December.
Today the President of the Upper House, Barry House decided not to grant Mr Goiran’s request.
Speaking to OUTinPerth Green’s MLC Lynn MacLaren said Mr Goiran’s appeal was one that she took seriously.
“He certainly made a strong sounding argument, but I think at the end of the day, it’s great that its cleared this first hurdle. It’s a good thing and its an important thing because the President has basically put to bed that there is any reason why the state can’t consider a bill to do with same sex marriage.”
Ms MacLaren said the next challenge for the bill is getting enough members of parliament to support it, something Ms MacLaren remains optimistic about.
“I still feel optimistic that we it comes down to it we will get enough people, even though there are conservative elements who will oppose it, I still think we’ll get enough people who will support it in the upper house,” Ms MacLaren said.
In August last year Mr Goiran gave a speech in parliament arguing that same sex marriage would lead to brothers and sisters wanting to marry. To demonstrate his point Mr Goiran shared the story of two fictional characters called Ethan and Stephanie who married and had a baby with genetic defects. At the time the Premier Colin Barnett described Mr Goiran’s speech as “inappropriate” and “irrelevant”.
Graeme Watson, image: stock image – YayMicro
Update: February 18th 17:20 Lynn MacLaren’s comments added.
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