Attorney-General Mr Ruddock appears to have ignored the views of his own Liberal colleagues, Senator Gary Humphries and the shadow ACT attorney-general, Bill Stefaniak, in proposing to veto the ACT civil unions law.
No one in the ACT – not Labor, not Liberal, not Greens – wants a bar of Mr Ruddock interfering in ACT legislation.
They all see that his interference is the real issue, not the pros or cons of same-sex unions.
Mr Ruddock’s petulant outburst has highlighted the archaic situation where Australia’s democratically elected territory legislatures are subject to over-rule on one man’s whim.
It’s time this power was removed from the minister responsible for Australian passport-holder David Hicks remaining unconvicted in Guantanamo Bay jail for four years, for an Australian being deported illegally to the Philippines, for illegally locking up Australians in immigration detention centres…
With his legal record, Mr Ruddock appears to be the problem, not the solution.
Bill Rowlings, secretary, Civil Liberties Australia (Canberra Times letter)