FEDERAL politicians need to “hurry up and get on with it” when it comes to legislating for same-sex marriage, according to regional Victoria’s leading sexual health body.
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Country Awareness Network acting executive officer Paula McCluskey said the change was overdue.
“We’re very disappointed in the decision made [on Tuesday] and just wish they’d get on with it,” she said.
Ms McCluskey said there was no need for the issue to go to a plebiscite, as favoured by Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
Instead, the issue could be resolved quicker and at far less cost to taxpayers by the Prime Minister allowing Coalition members a conscience vote, she said.
“Having said that, it doesn’t really matter how it’s done, so long as it happens,” she said.
Ms McCluskey said the government dragging its feet on the issue could have repercussions for gay people, particularly young people who were still coming to terms with their sexuality.
“They feel like second-class citizens. Some are also facing discrimination in their lives from family and friends, so to have the Australian government say to them ‘no, you’re not real’, it’s really detrimental to their mental health,” she said.
While Bendigo had a reputation for conservatism, Ms McCluskey said she believed most of its residents were for same-sex marriage.
“I think Bendigo is a conservative city but it’s not somewhere where we have to fear being different,” she said.
“While there are a lot of leaders in Bendigo who are still conservative, it doesn’t mean there’s hatred there.”
She pointed to the recent advertising campaign in the Bendigo Advertiser by local businesses as evidence that central Victorians were ready for change.
Ms McCluskey said Tony Abbott’s recent comments that legislating for same-sex marriage would require a mammoth “culture shift” were incorrect, and that the majority of Australians were already on board with the idea.
“I think [politicians] need to go back to the people who elected them,” she said.
“What they personally think and believe is pretty irrelevant, they need to go back and listen to the people.”
The most recent Fairfax/Ipsos poll, conducted in June, found that 68 per cent of Australian voters supported same-sex marriage while 25 per cent were opposed.
The 25 per cent opposition is the lowest level recorded in the poll.
It is a fall of 3 points since August 2013 and down from a poll high of 37 per cent in November 2010.
