Media Release

Salt Shakers Inc Wed. 19 September 2007

Marriage and gender matter

Prime Minister John Howard said that children deserve both a mother and a father, and that marriage between a man and a woman is the foundation of our society when he spoke to the National Summit on Marriage, Family and Fatherhood in Parliament House yesterday (18 Sept).

"Mr Howard endorsed the group's aim of promoting marriage and reiterated the importance of fatherhood" said Peter Stokes, Executive Officer of Salt Shakers.

Peter and Jenny Stokes were two of the speakers at the full-day Summit along with more than 20 speakers from a range of family and fatherhood groups.

The Marriage Manifesto was launched in the morning - this included a range of proposals for legislation including pre-marriage education vouchers and a number of measures to reinforce the importance of marriage and the natural family.

The speakers in the afternoon focused on the importance of gender being male and female. A book '21 Reasons why Gender matters' was launched during the afternoon.

"This booklet collates much of the social science research on this vital issue. Great concern was expressed over the promotion and acceptance of homosexual relationships and the link with gender confusion was explored by several speakers," said Peter Stokes.

Salt Shakers endorses the Open Letter (with more than 6,000 signatures) that is being sent to all federal MPs today opposing all forms of relationship registration, apart from marriage between a man and a woman The letter, organised by Festival of Light, was presented to the Summit by FOL Research Officer Richard Egan. It calls on the government to legislate to stop the states registering other forms of relationship, and called on the Labor party to drop their policy of supporting the introduction of state-based relationship registers.

For further comment, contact Peter Stokes 0413 084 145

www.saltshakers.org.au