NSW premier announces gay marriage support

Forgive my obsession of late darlings regarding marriage equality, but it's looking like now is a particularly historic moment in regards to Australian marriage equality, as the dominoes continue to fall from New Zealand's success on the issue.

All states apart from Queensland have marriage equality bills coming up at some stage. Now the conservative premier of New South Wales (the state closest to NZ and I'd guess the state where there's the most exchange of people between the two countries), Barry O'Farrell, has come out in support of gay marriage. Hmmm.... something to do with all that money about to head across the Tasman as gays marry in NZ? Well, whatever the reason, it's looking pretty promising that marriage equality is going to get up in the NSW parliament.

NSW Liberal Premier Barry O’Farrell has added his support for equal marriage, as calls for equality in Australia grow more strident in the wake of New Zealand passing same-sex marriage legislation this week. 

"As a Liberal who believes that commitment and family units are one of the best ways in which society is organised, I support the concept of same-sex marriage,” O’Farrell said. 

O’Farrell said governments should be encouraging commitment. “Because, ultimately, people caring for each other works side by side with governments to create better communities.” 

The NSW Premier said equal marriage should be a federal change: "Let’s do it in the nation's parliament, and let’s catch up with New Zealand again," he said.

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"NSW now has the same political setting that lead to the successful NZ vote, with both leaders supporting the reform, all parties having a conscience vote, and all sides of politics working together to progress the reform.” 

NSW Greens MP and gender and sexuality spokesperson Cate Faehrmann praised O'Farrell for his "evolution" on the issue of marriage equality, saying he was an example for Abbott and Gillard to follow. 

"Premier Barry O'Farrell has put Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard to shame on their lack of leadership to end discrimination and support marriage equality," Faehrmann said. 

"Barry is now on the right side of history. We can't underestimate what this leadership from the Premier means. If the Commonwealth fails to act, I'm confident that the NSW Parliament will. The work of the cross party marriage equality group will ensure that.” more

Meanwhile the Canberra dinosaurs politicians appear to finally be waking from their insular slumber and realising that Australians actually do care about this issue, and why the fuck haven't they addressed it like the people want them too? I'd say there's a bit of Aussie/Kiwi rivalry going on as well, being beaten hands down on this issue by NZ doesn't go down well in Australia.