Penny Wong

Foreign affairs minister Penny Wong and Greens spokesperson David Shoebridge

Foreign affairs minister Penny Wong told Senate estimates that she was happy to defer to Washington on whether or not the B52s stationed in Australia would carry nuclear weapons. Binoy Kampmark reports.

 

How can we prevail on Labor to admit that realpolitik is obscene as a frame for its Israel relations? How can we force it to see the Israeli colonising project as unacceptable in today’s world, asks Ken Blackman?

We thought marriage equality was in the bag after Prime Minister Tony Abbott hinted he’d support a cross-party bill and conscience vote in the Liberal Party room in June. We thought we were closer when opposition leader Bill Shorten put forward a marriage equality bill. Victories overseas — Ireland and the US — in May and June propelled momentum here. But both Abbott and Shorten are now backtracking.

On July 25, climate change minister Penny Wong, Australia’s first openly queer government minister, came out against equal marriage rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people. “On the issue of marriage I think the reality is there is a cultural, religious, historical view around that which we have to respect”, she told Channel 10. Wong’s statement dramatically shows the utter moral bankruptcy of the Labor Party on the issue.