Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard calls for a conscience vote in Parliament on gay marriage.
AFP reports:
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Tuesday called for a conscience vote on gay marriage in parliament, but said she did not support changing the law to make same-sex marriage legal.
Gay marriage is banned under Australian law and opposed by both major political parties despite polls showing widespread public support for a change to allow couples the right to wed.
Gillard said the issue provoked lively debate and she wanted her Labor Party colleagues to have the opportunity to express their views on it.
But the nation’s first woman prime minister stressed she still supported the current law.
“As I have said many times, I support maintaining the Marriage Act in its current form, and the government will not move legislation to change it,” she wrote in an opinion piece for the Sydney Morning Herald.
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