Political Groups
In 2009, the Australian Labor Party removed the explicit definition of marriage being between a man and a woman from its national platform. As of their 2011 national conference, they officially changed their policy to support same-sex marriage. Despite the party's official platform, members are permitted a conscience vote if the matter comes before parliament.
The Liberal Party of Australia is a socially conservative party, although it has a minority socially liberal wing. In recent years, under John Howard, it has moved to a more conservative policy agenda.
The Australian Greens, a socially liberal minority party formed in 1992, has declared its support for equal marriage rights, equal adoption rights, equal access to IVF treatment and legal recognition of civil unions regardless of sexuality or gender identity in Australia.
The National Party of Australia is a socially conservative party that opposes LGBT adoption, same-sex marriage, IVF, civil unions, and is opposed to most if not all legal rights for same-sex couples. In 1984, the National Party leader Ian Sinclair criticised the Labor party for accepting homosexuality as normal, which he claimed resulted in the spread of AIDS.
The Family First Party, a minor political party, emphasises socially conservative family values. Family First opposes LGBT adoption, IVF treatment for lesbians, and opposes same-sex marriage and civil unions, stating their declaration of marriage as "a union of a man and a woman".
The Christian Democratic Party, a minor conservative political party established in 1977, concentrates almost exclusively on moral issues such as abortion, homosexuality and pornography, and has recently made opposition to same-sex marriage a major part of its platform.
The Democratic Labor Party (DLP) is a minor, socially conservative political party in Australia that opposes same-sex rights and same-sex marriage.
The Australian Sex Party is a minor, socially progressive party in favour of full LGBT rights.
Read more about this topic: LGBT In Australia, Advocacy Groups
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“A political leader must keep looking over his shoulder all the time to see if the boys are still there. If they aren’t still there, he’s no longer a political leader.”
—Bernard Baruch (1870–1965)
“As in political revolutions, so in paradigm choice—there is no standard higher than the assent of the relevant community. To discover how scientific revolutions are effected, we shall therefore have to examine not only the impact of nature and of logic, but also the techniques of persuasive argumentation effective within the quite special groups that constitute the community of scientists.”
—Thomas S. Kuhn (b. 1922)