Brody's Scribbles... Wong Calls For Change To The ALP Policy On Gay Marriage

By Desmond Rutherford (Adelaide, Australia) NOV 27 | "FINANCE Minister Penny Wong has laid down a challenge to Julia Gillard and the federal Labor Party over the legalisation of gay marriage.

Senator Wong today backed a motion passed at the ALP conference in South Australia for a federal policy change in favour of gay marriage."

The important thing to note here, is the Labor right wing faction power broker, Senator Don Farrell claiming that, Labor would lose power if there was a change to the policy.

Finally after sitting on the fence and annoying the hell out of the activists with her silence and her allegiance to the party policy, Penny Wong has decided to side with the polls which show over 60 percent of Australians agree with same sex marriage.

Don Farrell's position on the policy seems motivated by other, than his constituents' thoughts. Could he be influenced by his Christian roots? I'd say, Hell, Yeah! However his public and party room facade is that of worrying about winning the next election. This would seem to me to be merely a ploy to keep the present policy of denying same sex marriage on the basis of marriage being only between a man and a woman.

More worrying politics are seen in Senator Wong's attack on The Greens, whose policy has been to support same sex marriage, when she "criticised The Greens for seeking change by “shouting about it”, rather than sensibly advocating for it."

Senator Farrell claims to back Prim Minister, Julia Gillard, "in that marriage should be between a man and a woman," is somewhat ingenuous when it is considered that he "helped engineer" her becoming Prime Minister, which she accepted with what could be interpreted as opportunistic fervour, despite her left wing faction past. Oh I forgot, she is now a centrist.

Could both senators be in agreement that countering The Greens is more important than same sex marriage?

I would have thought that if Senator Wong was serious about same sex marriage being legalised, then she would have accepted whatever help the Greens could offer, but she'd rather join Senator Farrell in attacking the one political party which has consistently supported her self-declared sexuality.

If Senator Farrell expects to undermine The Greens' resolve to support same sex marriage by agreeing to Senator Wong's right to change her mind, then he may find the left wing faction's return to power in Labor, as being one of the long term aims of the Prime Minister. The behind the scenes wrangling of the Labor right wing faction is looking somewhat Machiavellian, with a marriage policy that is decidedly lacking in human rights equality, and in disregard of the will of the Australian people.