gay couples to share $31k dinner with pm

From: AAP
June 15, 20116:55PM

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard will soon be hosting dinner at her place for three gay couples keen to persuade her on the merits of same-sex marriage.

The lobby group GetUp today paid a whopping $31,100 for the privilege of dinner with the PM, which was auctioned off as part of the Canberra press gallery's annual charity ball.

It'll hand the dinner date to three same-sex couples, including Sandy Miller and her fiancee Louise Bucke, to make the case for same-sex marriage.

The two women have been engaged for the past two years - and counting.

"Our youngest often asks us, 'Mummies, are you going to be engaged forever? Why don't you get married?,'" Ms Miller said in a statement today.

"It has been hard trying to explain that our government won't let us get married, and he doesn't understand why everyone else can get married and become a family legally and we can't.
"We don't want to be considered special or better than anyone else. We only want the same rights as every other person and couple in Australia."

GetUp said it used leftover funds from its marriage equality campaign to pay for the dinner, as well as a last-minute email to its members calling for donations.

"We're just a couple of grand shy of the $31,100, but we're confident we'll get there," spokesman Paul Mackay said.

It's not the first time GetUp has tried such a tactic. Last year, it paid a more modest $16,100 for a surfing lesson with Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

It gave the lesson to Afghan refugee Riz Wakil, who chatted with Mr Abbott about the failings of the coalition's asylum-seeker policy.

The lesson was provided just last month - some 323 days after the auction was won - and Mr Mackay hopes Ms Gillard won't be as tardy.

This year's auction stipulates the dinner date must be delivered between 11 and 16 days.

Ms Gillard was undoubtedly the biggest prize of the night. Her $31,100 price was more than double the next highest successful bid of $13,601 for a game of tennis with Mr Abbott and former tennis great-turned-Liberal backbencher John Alexander.

GetUp also forked out $12,100 for lunch with the three independent MPs, Rob Oakeshott, Bob Katter and Tony Windsor, which it will also use to campaign on the same-sex marriage issue.

Australian Greens leader Bob Brown offered breakfast and a springtime protest walk, which managed to raise $3150.

A football date with Treasurer Wayne Swan attracted just two bids, with the winner paying $3000.




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