AUSSIE PM SAYS NO TO GAY MARRIAGE

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced that his government will not support gay marriage, and the ban on it will remain.

“We went to the last election being very clear-cut about our position on marriage, under the Marriage Act, being between a man and a woman,” Rudd told ABC Radio.

“I fully respect the integrity of other same-sex relationships … but in terms of the policy, it’s a matter to which we have been committed for some time,” he said. He voiced his opinion ahead of a Senate inquiry to overturn the ban.

“Rudd’s showed his hand, he’s made his position quite clear, but we currently have a senate inquiry into the issue,” Australian Marriage Equality (AME) spokesperson Alex Greenwich told Sxnews. “He should have waited until it was complete before announcing that Labor remained opposed to same-sex marriage.”

Despite his opposition to same-sex marriage, Rudd insisted that his administration will not tolerate discrimination based on sexual orientation.

“We’ve said that, in terms of all legal discrimination against same-sex partners, that we would act to remove them, and the Attorney-General has been hard at work … amending 90 or 100 pieces of federal legislation to make sure that those discriminations are removed.”