ALP cares for power and glory over human rights

Bill Shorten and Julia Gillard are interested more in power than human rights

Same-sex marriage is against the law in Australia — and the ALP is to blame.

That is a simple fact.

The ALP knows how important this is to people.

They know it’s a human rights issue.

A stain on our good name, as Australians.

But they don’t care.

The want to own the moment. They want to claim the credit for getting it done.

Glory ahead of human rights: that’s the ALP’s official policy. Either we do it, or no-one gets it.

That’s their point of view.

A short history lesson: the ALP under Julia Gillard had an opportunity to legislate for same-sex marriage.

But Julia Gillard herself voted against it.

Try to get your head around that. The first female Prime Minister, a 1970s feminist, supposedly a warrior for diversity; an anti-discrimination champion; a supposedly staunch advocate for women’s rights and same-sex rights — voted against same-sex marriage.

This she did in parliament, as Prime Minister, as recently as 2012.

Why?

Power.

That’s it, in a rank nutshell. Gillard refused to tackle those in the ultra-socially-conservative Shoppies union that promised merry hell if same-sex marriage went through, because they helped her into power.

Gillard’s decision to vote against same-sex marriage is, was, and always will be, Julia Gillard’s greatest shame.

Nobody who truly supports same-sex marriage — or indeed human dignity — will ever look at her the same way.

The ALP had its chance to push through a great human rights victory, something up there with counting indigenous Australians in the Census, and giving women the vote, but Gillard cared too much about her own power to do it.

And then what happened?

The conservative Coalition went to the election with a policy for a same-sex marriage plebiscite.

They won.

Australia should by rights have gone to the polls by now, with a simple question for the voters: should we have same-sex marriage or not? Yes or no?

The yes-vote would have romped home. There would have been singing and dancing in the streets. Thousands of couples, together ten and twenty and fifty years, would be tying the knot this weekend.

But no.

The ALP refused to back the plebiscite. Never mind that the Coalition took the policy to the election and won, and therefore had a mandate.

The nasty, glory-seeking ALP refused to back it.

And so we still don’t have same-sex marriage and — again — the ALP, now led by Bill Shorten, is to blame.

Again, they know how important this is to so many people.

They know it’s about human rights.

But they do not care.

The want to own the moment. They want the glory. They won’t put it through because they care more about who gets to do it — i.e.: themselves — than they do about justice.

That’s what Malcolm Turnbull meant when he told this morning’s press conference: “Bill Shorten does not care about same sex marriage. He does not care whether gay people can get married or not.”

He is absolutely right.

Bill Shorten cares only about being the one who gets to bask in the glory. He’s got his speech all written. He wants to be on that page in the history books. He wants Labor there, despite the fact that Labor has no right to be there.

Labor, on this issue, has put both personal and party glory ahead of human rights. That’s their policy: to own it. And that’s despicable.