CROSS PARTY GROUP TO PURSUE MARRIAGE EQUALITY IN NSW

JOINT STATEMENT

CROSS PARTY GROUP TO PURSUE MARRIAGE EQUALITY IN NSW

State Members of Parliament have joined forces to support marriage equality in NSW.

The National's Trevor Khan, Liberal's Bruce Notley-Smith,  the Greens’ Cate Faehrmann, Labor's Penny Sharpe, and Sydney Independent Clover Moore have formed a cross party group to progress marriage equality through the NSW Parliament.

We will be working together to develop a bill that will allow same sex couples in NSW to marry.

All couples in NSW should be treated equally before the law.

Marriage equality is the final area of the law that discriminates against GLBTI couples. We want to change that.

We believe that the best result that would deliver marriage equality would be for the Federal Parliament to pass one of the bills currently before it, however we recognise that that this may not be achieved the first time.

If the bills in the Federal Parliament are not successful we will follow Members of Parliament in Tasmania, South Australia, the ACT and Western Australia in pursuing state based marriage equality.

In recent years, NSW parliamentarians have shown that by working together we can remove discrimination against GLBTI couples.  Same sex couples are now treated equally in every area of NSW law. It is time to finish the job.

We also welcome any other NSW MP's who want to work to progress marriage equality through the NSW Parliament.

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Trevor Khan
The Nationals

Bruce Notley- Smith
Liberal Party

Cate Faehrmann
The Greens    

Penny Sharpe
Labor Party     

Clover Moore
Independent Member for Sydney