Thursday, August 23, 2007

Vatican holding the reins in Canberra: Croome

Australia’s national policy on same-sex relationships is being held to ransom by the Vatican in the view of prominent gay advocate Rodney Croome.

Quoting as his source unnamed mainstream parliamentary journalist, Mr Croome reported today on his website that Federal Cabinet has indefinitely deferred further consideration of same-sex relationship entitlements.

“It seems Philip Ruddock's Cabinet submission in favour of granting some entitlements sparked quite a long and passionate debate, but there was no resolution and the matter was deferred indefinitely,” Mr Croome wrote.

“I'm told Ruddock, John Howard and most others sided with reform. But they couldn't persuade Tony Abbott, Kevin Andrews and some recalcitrant Nationals who frequently cited an anti-reform letter-writing campaign to justify their position.”

The veteran law reform campaigner said that if his source was correct, GLBT Australians were looking at “a double tragedy”.

“The first is the Coalition is showing itself to be incapable of embracing moderate, overdue, widely-supported gay law reform, despite the hard work of key figures like Warren Entsch and Malcolm Turnbull, plunging hope of reform under a re-elected Coalition Government to a new low,” he said.

“The second is that national policy on same-sex couples is being held hostage by the Vatican.”

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