Krishna and Veronica hug outside the High Court of Australia as the verdict is passed (Picture: AFP//Getty)

Less than a week after an autonomous region in Australia was the first to legalise gay marriage in the country, its High Court has repealed it.

The Marriage Equality (Same Sex) Act 2013 was passed in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) – which governs the capital Canberra and its surrounding areas – in October and came into force on Saturday.

More than two dozen couples married in the five days since it was enacted, but these unions are now null and void with the court overturning the new law.

The government’s lawyer argued that employing differing legislation from other Australian states and territories would cause confusion.


Ivan Hinton, right, gives his partner Chris Teoh a kiss after taking their wedding vows earlier this week – their marriage will now be annulled (Picture: AP/Rob Griffith)

The country’s Marriage Act was amended in 2004 to define matrimony as a union between man and woman only – and the High Court today unanimously voted that ACT’s law could not run parallel with this.



A court statement read: ‘The Marriage Act does not now provide for the formation or recognition of marriage between same sex-couples.

‘The Marriage Act provides that a marriage can be solemnised in Australia only between a man and a woman. That act is a comprehensive and exhaustive statement of the law of marriage.’

Civil unions are allowed in ACT, in addition to other states which have introduced them including: Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria, and New South Wales.

Solidarity + sympathy with loving couples whose loving relationships attacked – but not devalued by #marriageequality decision @DawsoMLC — Martin Foley (@MartinFoleyMP) December 12, 2013

Campaigners say that a civil union reduces gay couples to ‘second-class citizens’, shunned from the societal and legal benefits that marriage brings – including international recognition.

‘This is devastating for those couples who married this week and for their families,’ said Rodney Croome, from advocacy group Australian Marriage Equality.

However, he added: ‘This is just a temporary defeat. What is far more important is that the ACT’s law facilitated the first same-sex marriage on Australian soil and showed the nation the love and commitment of same-sex couples.’

Lyle Shelton, of the Australian Christian Lobby, which opposes same-sex marriage, said that common sense had prevailed and that the High Court’s decision was the right one.

Good to see the High Court has made an absolutely correct interpretation of our Constitution #auspol — Alex Hawke MP (@AlexHawkeMP) December 12, 2013

He said it was ‘really sad that the couples were put in a position in which they could marry before the verdict was passed down.

Prime minister Tony Abbott is staunchly against gay marriage and his Liberal-National coalition blocked two federal bills last year that would have given legal recognition to same-sex partnerships.

It comes a day after India’s Supreme Court recriminalised homosexuality four years after it was legalised in a landmark decision to revoke a 153-year-old colonial law.