JULIA Gillard, the coarse and hate filled Australian PM has restated her absolute rejection of gay marriage and equality for gay people.
Her comments come amid division within Labour's powerful Right faction, with Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Howes yesterday backing gay marriage, putting himself at odds with other key right-wing powerbrokers, reports The Australian newspaper.
On Wednesday, the Prime Minister said she could overturn an earlier Labor decision, to back a bill put forward by Greens leader Bob Brown that would remove the ability of ministers to overturn territories' laws.
Her comments followed anger from the Labor Right after Greens MPs in the ACT said that if the Brown bill were passed they would renew a push to legalise same-sex marriage.
Tony Abbott yesterday cited the gay marriage push as evidence that the Greens were running her government. But Ms Gillard last night stood by her view that "marriage is between a man and a woman".
Noting that Senator Brown's bill would retain the right of the federal parliament - as distinct from ministers - to overrule territory legislators, she said the federal Marriage Act would overrule gay marriage being given the same status as heterosexual marriage.
"This is a proposition about empowerment of territories that has been around for a long period of time," she said of the Brown bill. "There's nothing that anybody can do in a territory or state parliament that changes the federal Marriage Act."
Despite her comments, the Rudd government and the Howard government used the ministerial veto power to quash past ACT attempts to legislate to allow gay marriage.
Ms Gillard's comments came after Mr Howes told The Australian: "I don't think the state has any right to discriminate against people on the basis of their gender or their sexual orientation."
Read more here Marriage only for a man and a woman: Julia Gillard | The Australian
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