Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Bill 2017
| Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017 | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Parliament of Australia | |
| An Act to amend the law relating to the definition of marriage and protect religious freedoms, and for other purposes | |
| Citation | Act no. 129, 2017 |
| Territorial extent | Australia |
| Enacted by | Parliament of Australia |
| Date enacted | 7 December 2017 |
| Date of Royal Assent | 8 December 2017 |
| Date commenced | 9 December 2017 |
| Legislative history | |
| Introduced by | Senator Dean Smith |
| First reading | 15 November 2017 |
| Second reading | 28 November 2017 |
| Third reading | 29 November 2017 |
| Introduced by | The Hon. Warren Entsch MP |
| First reading | 4 December 2017 |
| Second reading | 7 December 2017 |
| Third reading | 7 December 2017 |
| Related legislation | |
| Marriage Act 1961 | |
| Keywords | |
| same-sex marriage | |
| Status: Current legislation | |
The Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017 is an Act of the Parliament of Australia, which legalises same-sex marriage in Australia by amending the Marriage Act 1961 to allow marriage between two persons of marriageable age, regardless of their gender.
Introduced as a private member's bill by Western Australian Senator Dean Smith of the Liberal Party following the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey, the bill passed the Parliament on 7 December 2017. It received royal assent on the following day and came into effect on 9 December 2017.
Same-sex marriage legislation had been presented to the Australian Parliament on 22 occasions between September 2004 and May 2017, though on each occasion the legislation failed to pass either the House of Representatives or the Senate. These attempts followed the Howard Government's 2004 amendment to the Marriage Act which explicitly defined marriage as a union between only a man and a woman and banned the recognition of same-sex marriages conducted lawfully in foreign jurisdictions. Prior to the legalisation of same-sex marriage, same-sex relationships could only be treated as de facto unions under federal law. These unions provide couples with most, though not all, of the legal rights of marriage, although those rights may be difficult to assert and are not always recognised in practice.
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