A lawmaker in Australia’s governing coalition is to put a bill permitting same-sex marriage before the country’s parliament on Tuesday, the Australian newspaper reported.
The measure by Federal Member for Leichhardt Warren Entsch has supporters among the governing Liberal-National coalition, as well as the opposition Labor Party and the smaller Greens, the newspaper reported, citing Labor member of parliament Terri Butler who also supports the legislation.
The proposal would change the definition of marriage to say it is between two people, rather than a man and a woman, the newspaper said.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott — a former trainee Jesuit priest who in 2010 said he felt “a bit threatened” by homosexuality — in June declined to allot parliamentary time to debate the issue.
He has refused to grant his party’s lawmakers a free vote on the issue, a decision that could make it impossible to pass any bill without government support.
“The Liberal Party loses nothing, gains much by accepting this is an issue of conscience for its elected reps,” Abbott’s sister, Christine Forster, wrote on her Twitter account on Thursday.
Forster is a lesbian and a Liberal Party councilor, and had a portrait painted with her partner last year, in which she’s holding a sign that says: “Marry me???”
Australian Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson proposed in a commentary in the Australian newspaper yesterday to separate the legal definitions of civil and religious marriage.
“Religious marriage would only be permitted in line with a faith’s teachings,” he said.
Butler told the paper that such a compromise might not be workable and risks creating two classes of marriage.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS