If the Civil Union Partnership bill is passed by the Stanhope government, then the incumbent Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, had stated he would not override it like his predecessor, John Howard. Mr. Rudd told a Fairfax publication that this issue was a territory issue.
"On these matters, state and territories are answerable to their own jurisdictions," he said.
This would be the third time for the ACT chief minister, Jon Stanhope, to pass the Partnership bill where the previous two were rejected by the conservative government.
Opposition is expected, once again, for the passage of the Partnership bill by the ACT government. Leading the charge against implementing the law is the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL), a Christian lobby group, which had initially lobbied both major parties to pass the marriage amendment in 2004.
This bi-partisan support for the amendment was to protect marriage through defining it as a union between a man and a woman.
Jim Wallace, the managing director of the ACL, described the push by the Stanhope government on civil union as undermining the special status on marriage and criticised his government for destroying what it means to be a family when he had earlier pass a law to allow same-sex couples to adopt.
"He is now obviously hoping that his agenda to undermine the special status of marriage in society as being between a man and a woman will have national repercussions too. This is particularly the case as his proposed legislation has extra territorial application – meaning it is available to anyone in Australia."
"Mr Stanhope has already led the way in breaking down the meaning of family in Australia. In 2004 his Government passed laws to allow children placed up for adoption to be given to same sex couples, thereby denying them the right to a mother and a father."
Currently, a relationship registry is being used in Tasmania and is being introduced in the State of Victoria.