Marriage Equality

Wednesday 24 May 2017

Advocating for marriage equality for all Australians regardless of their sexual orientation is an issue which is of great importance to the members of CWA Sydney City

To that end, our same sex marriage motion was debated yesterday during a closed meeting at the CWA of NSW State Conference at Tumbi Umbi on the Central Coast. The doors were closed so the membership could express their views freely.

After a respectful, yet robust debate among the Conference delegates, it was decided the issue should not be put to a vote. They were simply not ready to put the motion to the floor at this stage

CWA Sydney City President, Silvana Griffin, and Branch member, Elizabeth Nash, teamed up on behalf of the Branch to deliver their motion in favour of making marriage equality CWA policy

‘Naturally, we’re disappointed there wasn’t an opportunity to take this to a vote’ said Silvana after the debate. ‘Even though the membership just wasn’t ready to commit to a policy at this time, we’ve received a huge amount of support from many members which is really gratifying

‘We may be down now, but we’re not out. CWA Sydney City will keep championing for this important reform to our marriage laws. We strongly believe all Australians who wish to legally marry should be treated equally, with dignity

Our motion presented: “that the policy of CWA of NSW shall be to advocate for the equality of all Australians under the Marriage Act 1961 Cth. This includes changing the definition of marriage under section 5 of the Act from “between a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life” to “the union of two people to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life.”