Local Leaders: I voted Yes to get it off the political agenda

Not because I was taken in by the slogans about “marriage equality” and that all people who love each other should have the same “rights” as all other people.

They already do.

Nor do I believe that a Yes vote will be the end of religious belief, opening the way for marriage between man and beast, nor any of the other rubbish being bandied about.

I voted Yes because any issue connected with sex and religion crosses party lines and thus distorts what is supposed to be the rational process of electing those who able to provide us with good government.

Malcolm Fraser encountered an abortion debate soon after he became prime minister.

He patted it down and kept sex out of politics for the duration of his very competent administration.

John Howard, who said at the outset that government had no business in the bedrooms of the nation, opened Pandora’s box near the end of his time.

He legislated to enforce Christian teaching, that marriage was between a man and a woman.

There was no need for it, and no demand for it.

He gave homosexual activists a cause they never said they wanted, and made it their cause.

It is Bill Shorten’s cause as well, and could carry him into office.

I voted Yes because I believe, strongly, that there is no other way to get it off the political agenda.