thefamilylawdirectory.com.au

Julia Gillard has agreed to consider overturning the government's support for an Australian Greens' plan that would open the way for the nation's first same-sex marriage laws after an angry revolt by Labor MPs.

Only 24 hours after Labor announced its support for Bob Brown's proposal to water down the commonwealth's veto over territory laws, the Prime Minister said she had "sought further advice on the issue" and "the government may reconsider the matter".

Ms Gillard faced a widespread revolt yesterday as Labor senators, led by one of her key supporters in the leadership coup last year, Don Farrell, demanded Labor overturn its support for the Greens plan.

Senator Brown's proposed legislation would have removed the commonwealth veto used by the Howard and Rudd governments to ban euthanasia and restrict same-sex marriage.

Ms Gillard and her long-time ally, Simon Crean, are being accused of not consulting the back bench properly and of giving too much ground to the Greens, as Labor now faces a divisive debate over euthanasia and same-sex marriage.

"We are confident of reversing this decision and rectifying the mess we are now in," one of the rebellious senators told The Australian last night.

The ministerial decision to support Senator Brown's bill has also drawn fire from the government's conservative union base, with right-wing power broker and head of the Shop, Distributors and Allied Employees Association Joe de Bruyn declaring strong opposition to the territories bill.

"Everybody in the federal parliament knows that this is simply a way of letting the territories into euthanasia or whatever else they want to do," Mr de Bruyn said.

"It would be grossly irresponsible for the Australian parliament to give powers back to the ACT government when it has made clear how it intends to exercise those powers."

The Labor revolt culminated yesterday morning with a delegation of three senators to Ms Gillard's office to complain and seek a policy reversal.

Labor senators were so incensed with Mr Crean's presentation as Regional Affairs Minister at the partyroom meeting on Tuesday morning, they secretly approached Coalition senators and organised for the Liberals to ask Senator Brown to agree to delay the introduction of his bill, due this week, and refer it to the legal and constitutional affairs committee for an inquiry.

Senator Brown announced yesterday that he agreed with the Coalition request to refer the bill to the committee, but said he hoped it would still come to the parliament for a vote before the May budget sitting.

The Greens leader said his proposal to remove the commonwealth veto over ACT and Northern Territory legislation was a victory for democracy and was about states' rights, not same-sex marriage.

But Labor senators said the reality was that the government's support for the bill would ensure same-sex marriage - which is against Labor policy and the personal preference of Ms Gillard - would be introduced in the ACT and would encourage a revision of the euthanasia ban in the territories.

The senators also complained that Mr Crean had not taken the decision to cabinet for discussion, had not given the ALP caucus notice of the bill and had misled MPs over the potential impact of the plan.

After a series of meetings and the attempt to "buy time" by getting the Coalition to refer the bill to the legal and constitutional committee, Labor senators then directly appealed to Ms Gillard to reverse the decision.

Labor senators complained about the failure to have a system in place to properly deal with private members bills, which are now guaranteed to be debated, and the inability of the Prime Minister's office and Mr Crean to identify the consequences of Senator Brown's bill.

Ms Gillard has stated her own opposition to same-sex marriage, and Labor was trying to keep the debate off the agenda until the ALP conference at the end of the year.

In a statement to The Australian last night, Ms Gillard said: "Following the Senate inquiry into the bill the government may reconsider the matter in response to any issues arising".

Mr de Bruyn said he was strongly opposed to restoring the rights of the territories.

"From comments made by the ACT Chief Minister (Jon Stanhope) and the Greens it's very clear that they will misuse these powers to make it legal to get rid of people when they get old," Mr de Bruyn said.

He said parliament should not attempt to "hide behind" the claim that it was simply giving the territories equal power to the states when it clearly understood the policy consequences. "This is about euthanasia, pure and simple, and everybody knows it," he said.

Senator Brown said his bill specifically would not repeal the 1997 legislation sponsored by Liberal MP Kevin Andrews, which banned euthanasia in the Northern Territory.

But he said he would press Labor to allow a conscience vote aimed at reversing the 1997 ban.

Mr Andrews yesterday said Ms Gillard was a puppet of the Greens and there was a two-step process "in which we have the Greens here in Canberra, moving one set of legislation and at the same time, Greens elsewhere saying they will immediately use such legislation". "So this is clear what their strategy is and we shouldn't be fooled by it," he said.

Senator Brown kept the pressure on the government through private members' bills yesterday that propose a ban on junk food commercials during children's television programs.