Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I table the explanatory memorandum and seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

MARRIAGE ACT AMENDMENT (RECOGNITION OF FOREIGN MARRIAGES FOR SAME-SEX COUPLES) BILL 2013

This Bill amends the Marriage Act 1961 so that same-sex marriages that were validly entered into in foreign countries can be recognised in Australia.

Under current Australian law, international marriages of different-sex couples are legally recognised but same-sex international marriages are barred from recognition through an explicit prohibition in the Marriage Act.

This bill removes that prohibition and inserts new clauses that make it abundantly clear that all marriages, regardless of the gender or sexual orientation of the couple, will have full legal status and recognition upon the married couple's return to Australia.

It is worth noting that this Bill has been introduced shortly after our neighbours in New Zealand became the fourteenth country to bring in full marriage equality.

Last month Australians watched on with joy and envy as the New Zealand Parliament secured the fantastic achievement of marriage equality and was cheered on by supporters around the world.

There are already thousands of Australian couples planning to marry in New Zealand from late 2013 onwards. There is no residency requirement in the New Zealand Marriage Act so Australian same-sex couples will be free to marry there.

Those couples will join the many Australians who have been travelling the world over the past decade to get married, only to come back home to the country that they love to find their marriage is not recognised. Despite being legally married in the foreign country, in their homeland they step off the plane and have to leave their marriage at the customs gate.

This is not in the spirit of what Australians really want to see in this country. Public support for marriage equality is the same in New Zealand as in Australia, which is that a 65% majority of people want to see marriage equality happen. But as long as we do not have full marriage equality here in Australia, we should at least recognise the marriages of all couples – lesbian, gay and straight – who have legally married overseas.

This bill offers a modest and practical step forward to marriage equality and it is consistent with the foundational Australian ideal of equality before the law.

The marriages that are the subject of this Bill have been entered into by the parties with sincerity and commitment and are valid marriages under the law of the county where it was solemnised. The couples have gone to the effort and emotional investment of organising a wedding in a foreign country, often at great expense and involving family and friends from Australia, and they have made vows that would be life-long if they were to remain in the country where the wedding was held. The solemnity of the vows that these couples made overseas should be recognised by Australia's parliament and people.

There a number of countries that recognise international same sex marriages without having domestic laws to perform same-sex marriages, including Israel, Slovenia, Japan and the Netherlands.

Couples from those countries can marry in one of the fourteen countries which have marriage equality, such as Argentina, the Netherlands, France or New Zealand, and then return to have their marriage recognised under the laws of their homeland.

It makes legal and moral sense for Australians to have the same privilege. These married couples are not the legal strangers that our laws say they are. Rather, they are two committed, loving, validly married people under the laws of a foreign nation and they should be recognised under Australian as such.

I commend this Bill to the Senate.

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.