Deaking – Liberal Democrats – Ben Walsh

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> The Liberal Democratic Party’s candidate for the Federal seat of Deakin,
> Benjamin Walsh has urged voters to strongly consider pledging their
> support to a party that favours unilateral equality regardless of age,
> gender, sexual orientation or race. Mr. Walsh – the youngest candidate in
> the 2010 Federal election – has expressed that while most major parties
> agree on equal treatment regardless of gender or ethnicity, the treatment
> of non-heterosexual Australians fails to uphold the equal rights they are
> deserving of. Mr. Walsh commented “The overwhelming argument for not
> legalising same-sex marriage in Australia has been that the Marriage Act,
> which in its current form, defines marriage as being between a man and a
> woman. This is no stronger than the identical arguments that have opposed
> every civil rights struggle in the Western World. If status-quo
> conservatism was constantly followed in areas of human rights, the rights
> of women or Indigenous Australians to vote would not exist and the
> multicultural Australia of today would be little more than a pipe dream”.
> The Liberal Democratic Party’s platform of marriage equality places it
> firmly away from the stated policies of both major parties. Mr. Walsh
> stated “It saddens and shames me that a country as diverse and tolerant
> as Australia has not taken steps to introduce true marriage equality to
> all
> its citizens. The idea that a person should be excluded from the joy of
> matrimony, based purely on the basis of sexuality, betrays the tolerance
> and diversity that has made Australia such a proud and unique country. I
> strongly urge the people of my Electorate, Deakin, to support my party’s
> bid to introduce long-overdue marriage equality into Australian law.”
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