Australian government again thwarts local gay marriage law

Australia’s Attorney-General Philip Ruddock announced Tuesday night that the Commonwealth would override the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Government Bill for a second time.

It would be the second time Conservative Prime Minister John Howard's government is invoking special powers to invalidate a territory's law that had been the first in Australia giving legal recognition to same-sex relationships.

ACT, which includes the national capital Canberra, has twice drafted laws that would make it the first of Australia's six states and two territories to legally recognise gay and lesbian relationships which will accord same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual partnerships under proposed "civil partnership" laws.

"It remains the government's opinion that the Civil Partnership Bill would still in its amended form be likely to undermine the institution of marriage," Ruddock said in a statement.

Ruddock was also worried that a formal ceremony to mark a same-sex union would undermine the traditional marriage ceremony. "We're not about to make same sex relationships a formal marriage," Ruddock told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio Wednesday.

ACT Attorney General Simon Corbell said he hoped the conservative federal government would lose power in elections this year so that the ACT could make its own laws.

Calling the Federal Government's reasons for overturning the Bill weak and vague, he said to ABC Radio today: “It just beggars belief that we have a Commonwealth Government that really isn't able to give any substantive argument and just says, `well we think it offends the institution of marriage,' well, what does that mean?"

Officials in Howard's center-right coalition amended federal marriage laws in 2004 to ensure that only men and women can marry.

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