News: Australia gay marriage rally draws record crowd ahead of postal vote, page-61

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The five Liberal same sex marriage proponents say their bill is the “most considered and comprehensive response to the issue of same sex marriage to day, and is the most comprehensive accommodation of competing attitudes on the issue.”

The bill draws upon the unanimous findings of a cross-party senate committee on the Marriage Amendment (Same-Sex Marriage) Bill which earlier this year examined the implications for religious freedom if same sex marriage were to be introduced.

The proposed bill would insert an “objects clause” to the Marriage act 1961 to:

a) allow civil celebrants to solemnise marriage, understood as the union of 2 people to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life;

b) allow ministers of religion to solemnise marriage, respecting the doctrines, tenets and beliefs of their religion, the views of their religious community or their own religious beliefs;

c) allow equal access to marriage while protecting religious freedom in relation to marriage