E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

HIT105 WITH STAV AND ABBY

THURSDAY, 28 MAY 2015

 

SUBJECT/S: Marriage equality; State of Origin.

 

ABBY: Bill I have to say I completely support same-sex marriages for many reasons –

 

STAV: She’s a celebrant; it will bump up her numbers Bill.

 

ABBY: No, I think the Marriage Act is outdated and I can’t get my head around, and I’m sure a lot of people don’t understand that I am allowed to marry cousins, I’m allowed to marry an uncle to his niece which I find absolutely absurd but two, you know, people of the same sex aren’t allowed to get married. But why have you now put it into a conscience vote just now?

 

BILL SHORTEN, LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Well I voted for it three years ago. I’ve believed for a long time we should have marriage equality, probably not for different reasons you just said then Abby. The Irish referendum last weekend I think gave us all a chance to get momentum going. The truth of the matter is that I’m the leader of the Labor Party, I support marriage equality, Tony Abbott’s the leader of the Liberal Party, he doesn’t. So what I want to do rather than make it a Liberal/Labor matter make it a free vote. But because the Irish have done it and, you know, a lot of us have got Irish ancestors -

 

STAV: Yep.

 

SHORTEN: So mine were convicts, I get that, but you know. We follow what happens in Ireland at lot and it’s a well-known, sort of very religious catholic country and if the Irish can get over the hang up about gay marriage and marriage equality why can’t we?

 

ABBY: You don’t really have the numbers though to get it passed as a bill for you guys though do you, for Labor?

 

SHORTEN: Well, Labor on its own doesn’t, we have a free vote but most Labor MPs support it. There’s more Liberals MPs, but I think by us raising it all of a sudden the focus has come on the Liberal Party allowing a free vote. So I think the numbers are there, I believe we can win, I believe we can just update the laws the reflect where society is at. It’s crazy that a couple might have to go to an embassy of another country to get married. That’s sort of legal fiction stuff we thought disappeared 50 years ago.

 

STAV: Yeah, we shouldn’t force anyone to have to go to New Zealand. My fear, and I don’t know if you may not have any way of answering this question, we’re already so far behind the world on climate change and stuff I would hate to see this go to a vote by the people of Australia and have it be shot down by because –

 

ABBY: The numbers have said that it wouldn’t.

 

STAV: Right, because that would be

 

ABBY: Research has –

 

SHORTEN: We’re a bit different to Ireland in that they had to change their constitution. To have marriage equality you’ve just got to change the Marriage Act, so logically you do it in Parliament. I think the momentum is there, I just think that if Tony Abbott would just give his people a free vote I think we’d get the numbers.

 

STAV: Chances Bill Shorten of you having a float in the pride parade next year, what are they?

 

SHORTEN: I tell you what I would like to see, I would like to see people getting married here. You know, people in committed relationships shouldn’t be discriminated against -

 

STAV: No.

 

SHORTEN: Because they’re in a committed relationship with someone of the same sex. I don’t understand why this change hasn’t already happened.

 

ABBY: Well I always think that the politicians are supposed to represent the public and the fact that I think a lot of them are holding their personal  beliefs and values above what public opinion says is totally wrong, especially of Tony Abbott.

 

SHORTEN: Well I have to say that my view of the world is that governments shouldn’t interfere with the way people live their lives, especially their relationships, provided no one’s getting hurt. You know, frankly I believe in live and let live and I think marriage equality is another example of us just saying to people we want you to live good, long happy lives and we don’t want to get in the way.

 

STAV: And ‘My Two Dads’ was one of the greatest sitcoms of the early 90s.

 

SHORTEN: As a Victorian married to a Queenslander I have to say well done Queensland on last night.

 

ABBY: Yay!

 

STAV: Yay!

 

ABBY: Thank you Bill.

 

STAV: Bill Shorten, Leader of the Opposition, we hope you’re bill gets picked up and we hope Tony has the balls to allow his own MPs have a conscience vote themselves, good luck.

 

SHORTEN: Thank you.

 

ENDS

 

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