Whatever your relationship ...

The tragedy of all this political posturing and propaganda about the Tasmanian registry is not just that one of the world’s most progressive relationship laws is being painted as something much less than it is.

It obscures what Australia should be debating: how we develop a system of relationship laws which guarantee equal rights and respect for all personal relationships, including same-sex relationships, and maximum choice and flexibility when it comes to how these personal relationships are legally recognised.

A good start would be the kind of three-tiered system which already operates in several other western countries: de facto entitlements for a wide range of partners who want legal protection without formalising their unions, relationship registries for the same range of partners who want formal recognition without all the social and cultural connotations of marriage, and marriage for same and opposite sex partners who wish to make a marital commitment.

Seen this way, the debate about registries or marriage, especially for same-sex couples, becomes one about registries AND marriage.

It’s time to cut through the myth that Tasmania’s relationship registry is second-rate marriage, and see that registry for what it is, a innovative way to entitle diverse relationships which, in national law, properly sits beside marriage.

Then we can begin debating the real issue of how we provide Australians in personal relationships with a legal system that comprehensively protects and entitles them, and from which they can choose the kind of recognition which suits them best.