Thursday, November 08, 2012

Premier tabled law day after Archbishop visit

CAMPBELL Newman held a private meeting with Brisbane Catholic Archbishop Mark Coleridge the day before tabling surprise legislation to abolish state-sanctioned civil unions. 
 
The Queensland Premier and Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie met Archbishop Coleridge at Parliament House on June 19 "to discuss the Catholic Church's issues regarding the legislation".

The next day, the Civil Partnerships Amendment Bill was introduced at 8.44pm as an urgent bill to scrap provisions "that may be perceived to mimic marriage".

Hansard has recorded Archbishop Coleridge visited MPs in the house again that night.
Correspondence released under Right to Information laws reveals Mr Newman and Mr Bleijie met Archbishop Coleridge four days after the cleric sent an email to all government MPs outlining the church's position on civil unions. 

"You are in a delicate position, given that you don't want to fuel fears that, with your very large majority, you will appear ideological warriors taking draconian measures that could create mayhem in the community," Archbishop Coleridge said in the June 15 email.

"But the civil partnerships legislation is of a very particular kind, especially given the evidence that seems to be emerging . . . that there is a slippery slope from registration to civil partnerships to same-sex marriage. I would urge you therefore to honour the promise made before the election -- to repeal the civil partnerships legislation in order to safeguard marriage and the family as they have been known through the millennia."

Archbishop Coleridge declined to comment.

Mr Newman wrote back to Archbishop Coleridge on July 5, thanking him for the meeting and pointing out the new laws.

"I acknowledge that Queenslanders will continue to hold strong and differing views about the act," Mr Newman said.

A spokeswoman for Mr Bleijie said the meeting was not a factor in the amendments and they discussed a range of issues.

Archbishop Coleridge also wrote to Mr Newman on July 17, before the Brisbane Festival. He raised concerns about a performance by New York group the Wau Wau Sisters, dubbed profane and irreverent. 

"I can understand the place of burlesque/carnivalesque humour in a wide-ranging performance like the Brisbane Festival," he said. "But surely there is a limit, and we may have reached it with the Wau Wau Sisters."

Mr Newman organised a meeting with the Brisbane Festival board chairman Chris Freeman.

However, the Wau Wau Sisters went on to perform at the festival.