Australia: After ACT, New South Wales to debate gay marriage

Multiparty working group has developed new bill

A Labor Member of the New South Wales legislative council will introduce a gay-marriage bill next week, following closely on the heels of the Australian Capital Territory’s (ACT) Oct 22 passage of legislation allowing same-sex couples to marry.

Like ACT’s government, New South Wales has sought to come up with a measure that will survive a high court challenge if lawmakers pass it.

According to Sky News, MLC Penny Sharpe says a multiparty working group, including Liberal, National, Greens, Labor and independent lawmakers, has worked on crafting a bill with community and legal input.

Natasha Barsotti is originally from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. She had high aspirations of representing her country in Olympic Games sprint events, but after a while the firing of the starting gun proved too much for her nerves. So she went off to university instead. Her first professional love has always been journalism. After pursuing a Master of Journalism at UBC , she began freelancing at Xtra West — now Xtra Vancouver — in 2006, becoming a full-time reporter there in 2008.

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