He announced changes to the original legislation yesterday, after promising to consider repealing it during the election campaign.
There was a strong push from a number of lobby groups, including the Australian Christian Lobby, to completely abolish the legislation, introduced by the Labor government late last year.
The LNP government has ruled against repealing the legislation, but has introduced changes. Same-sex couples will still be allowed to register their relationship, but will no longer be able to have a state-sanctioned ceremony.
“The thing that offended Christian groups is that provisions in the initial Act were seen to emulate marriage,” Premier Campbell Newman said.
ACL’s Queensland Director, Wendy Francis, described the 2011 legislation as a political stunt by the ALP to pave the way for a change to the marriage policy at the ALP National Conference.
“I’m pleased the Premier has made these changes. What he’s done is correct the very bad aspects of this legislation,” Mrs Francis said.
“I expect the Bill will be renamed as a relationship register in the near future, and will have all references to sexuality removed.”
You can listen to our full interview with Wendy Francis here:
[podcast]/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/wendy-francis-blog.mp3[/podcast]
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