Govt to outlaw gay, lesbian marriage

The Federal Government will move to ban gay and lesbian marriages in Australia by defining "marriage" as an exclusive relationship between a man and a woman.


The Government will also not recognise overseas gay unions and ban same sex couples from adopting overseas children.

However, it appears they have won the right to nominate their partner as the beneficiary of any superannuation payouts.

Liberal backbencher Bronwyn Bishop says the Government has also decided not to overturn controversial laws in the ACT allowing same sex couples to adopt Australian children.

"By using federal power to enact federal legislation is the better way to proceed because of the difficulties that could flow from trying to overturn state or territory legislation, [it] does have consequences which would be very difficult to deal with," she said.