52,000 Australians sign Senate marriage petition

Posted by Katherine Spackman, PR Officer on August 24th, 2011

ACL's MD Jim Wallace hands the petition to Senator Ron Boswell and Senator Helen Polley

August 24, 2011

52,000 Australians sign Senate marriage petition

In an extraordinary display of concern for the institution of marriage, more than 52,000 people, mainly from the Christian constituency across Australia, have signed a Senate petition to keep the current definition of marriage between a man and a woman, the Australian Christian Lobby’s Managing Director Jim Wallace said.
The campaign, man+wife4life on www.makeastand.org.au, will be the largest petition to be tabled in Senate in the life of the 43rd parliament.
As well as the petition, more than 20,000 people came to the website to send emails to politicians about the importance of marriage remaining between a man and a woman.
“This depth of support shows that Australians believe marriage between a man and a woman is important for the social makeup of society,” Mr Wallace said.
“Imagine this level of response multiplied across other faiths, which also support marriage between a man and a woman.
“Many people are concerned that children should be given the opportunity to be raised by a mother and father, where possible, and revising the marriage definition would remove that ideal.
“This petition shows that there is strong support amongst Christians for marriage to remain the same and debunks any poll suggesting otherwise,” he said.
ACL has previously dismissed a Galaxy Poll, commissioned by the Australian Marriage Equality, claiming 53 per cent of Christians supported gay marriage.
“Asking people what religion they belong in the poll is different than going to the Christian constituency directly, which we have done in the petition,” he said.