JOHN SMEATON, DIRECTOR OF SPUC: Good and bad news as the Australian High Court rules on same-sex marriage law

Saturday, 14 December 2013

Good and bad news as the Australian High Court rules on same-sex marriage law

There was both good news and bad news this week as the High Court of Australia ruled on the law in the Australian Capital Territory (A.C.T.) which sought to allow same-sex civil marriages. The High Court said that the ACT's same-sex marriage law was invalid, because it contradicted Federal law, which only recognises opposite-sex marriage.

The bad news is that the High Court held also held that:

"s 51(xxi) [of the Australian Constitution] gives the federal Parliament power to pass a law providing for same sex marriage ... The status of marriage, the social institution which that status reflects, and the rights and obligations which attach to that status [marriage] never have been, and are not now, immutable ... When used in s 51(xxi), "marriage" is a term which includes a marriage between persons of the same sex."

So the Federal Parliament could, at some future point, decide to allow same-sex marriages. Thankfully last year Parliament voted against allowing same-sex marriages, and Tony Abbot, the newly-elected Catholic prime minister, is against same-sex marriage. The homosexualist lobby, however, is powerful and well-funded, so we must pray hard for the defence of marriage in Australia.

The content of this week's judgment is a salutary lesson to pro-life/pro-family campaigners not to get carried away by victories, but to form a cold, clear assessment of the texts, voting patterns, lobby-strengths etc. involved in each situation.

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About Me

I became involved in SPUC after graduating, when I established a branch in south London in 1974. I have worked full-time for SPUC for 42 years. I became chief executive of SPUC in the UK in 1996, having been general secretary since 1978. I was elected vice-president of International Right to Life Federation in 2005. At UN conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, I helped coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups resulting in pro-life victories in Cairo, Istanbul and Rome. I was educated at Salesian College, London, before going to Oxford where I graduated in English Language and Literature. I qualified as a teacher, becoming head of English at a secondary school. I am married to Josephine. We have a grown-up family and we live in north London.