On November 24, 2008, the Australian Senate approved two bills [PDFs] that granted same-sex couples equal rights compared to heterosexual married couples, but did not give them the right to marry. The Australian government initiated the legislation, which recognizes same-sex "de facto" relationships and grants equal taxation, health care, and adoption rights, in response to a 2007 Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission report [PDF] that recommended legislative changes to 58 federal laws in order to end same-sex discrimination. JURIST Guest Contributor Stephen Page described the legislation as "helpful, but not enough" in Hotline.
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Learn more about Australia and the laws governing same-sex marriage from the JURIST news archive.