Law Reform- My Report

* Law reform is the change in laws as society’s morals and ethics change. Example-capital punishment. * Issue is same-sex relationship and it’s controversial because it’s against religions, morals, social values and discrimination. * Lady Gaga urged Australians to get on with legalizing the gay marriage because it’s 2011. New York has become the sixth state in USA to legalise gay marriage whereas in Australia, NSW labor has voiced support for same sex marriage but has delayed vote on the issue until last year December. * the case-waiting for the big day-in six years, Michele and Lisa Saffery held onto their dream that one day they could legally marry in Australia. The women from Wagga Wagga and their two children, Gemme 6 and Jordae 5 carried a huge rainbow flag during 8000-strong gay marriage rights march the Labor party National conference in Sydney. Along with many others, the couple decided to have the same surname despite not being married, were disappointed with the conscience vote approved at the conference. ''I have to say to Julia Gillard, 'Damn you!''' Michele said. ''All Labor MPs should be voting 'yes' on this issue. The conscience vote is just a cop-out for Julia.'' An observant Jew, mr.whitmont-stein dismissed arguments that allowing same sex marriage was an attack on religion. “the whole point of marriage is equality, it’s not about religious institutions”, he said. Lisa Saffert and Michele are Australian but also hold British passports but they insist on marrying in Australia * the current law recognizes same sex relationships with the legislation act 2008 received Royal assent on 9, December 2008. It removes discrimination against same-sex couples and their children from a wide range of Commonwealth laws and programs. As part of the Act, the Health Insurance Act 1973 has been amended to recognize same-sex relationships and allow same-sex couples and their children to register as a family for Medicare Safety Net purposes, and thereby receive the same entitlements as opposite-sex couples and their children. It is to take effect from 1 January 2009. * The current law is ineffective because the change laws would only apply to some same-sex couples and their children, and some same-sex couples have their benefits reduced to the same entitlements received by opposite sex couples and their families in the same circumstances and also marriage between same-sex continues to be limited to union of man and a woman. Section 88EA of the Marriage Act 1961 explicitly states that marriages between same-sex couples that occur overseas are not recognized in Australia. * Speak now is a book written by Angela Yin talks about the same-sex marriage debate in Australia, which contains a number of different perspectives from sections of the lesbian and gay community. The views are more diverse than one might have initially thought, with some contributors for, some against and some neutral. * Suggestions of law reform include the laws to be unbiased of religion, public morality, social values and ethics and belief that a child must have a father and mother. * Australia's same-sex couples who describe themselves as "married" have been recorded in census data. There are 33,714 same-sex couples in Australia — 1338 of which reported their relationship as that of husband and wife. In 2011, 96 per cent of same-sex couples reported their relationship as being de facto.