not too much

Apparently Kevin Rudd's campaign plan was derailed when he was asked on commercial radio in Sydney about his beliefs on gay marriage, according to the ABC.

A radio shock jock interfered with Kevin Rudd's carefully manicured campaign yesterday by asking the Opposition Leader to lay out his views on gay marriage. . . . Mr Rudd's plan to spend the day talking about childcare policies was derailed by his appearance on FM radio host Kyle Sandilands' show. "On the institution of marriage itself, our view is that it's between a man and a woman and that's just been our traditional continuing view," Mr Rudd told Sandilands and his listeners.

"But ages ago, if you were black, you weren't allowed to travel on the same bus as a white person. And then we all realised, oh, actually that's wrong of us to think that because that was stupid. And that was wrong," Mr Sandilands said. "Do you think in the future sometimes we will look back and think we were wrong in what we believed. Like we can't really put our own beliefs on everyone, can we?"

Mr Rudd replied: "No. I accept that. But at the same time, you asked me a direct question, 'What do I believe in? What do I stand for? What is my party's policy?' I have just got to be up front with you and say that's it.

Gay and lesbian groupsare reported as greeting the Opposition Leader's views with shock and surprise. There's no reason to be surprised by Rudd's comments, he is merely stating the Labor Party's offical position, as reinfirced at its most recent National Cobference and enshrined in its platform.

Greens leader Bob Brown is quotedaccusing Mr Rudd of "sustaining discrimination" by not support gay marriage.

"Kevin, you're wrong," Senator Brown said. "Gay and lesbian people should be treated the same as heterosexual people under the law. When people form a relationship, they love each other, they get together, they share their lives, then the law should not be an impediment and they shouldn't discriminate. That means removing the discrimination that Labor and the Coalition have on marriage laws against this section of the community who happen to have same-sex relationships."

All in all, I don't care one way or the other about 'gay marriage'. But I do want the political parties to act Quickly to remove discrimination against gay and lesbian couple that exists because they are not 'married'.