Marriage Equality in Australia and New Zealand: A Trans-Tasman Politics of Difference

New Zealand’s parliament legislated for marriage equality in 2013, over four and a half years ahead of the passage of similar legislation in Australia. Civil unions came into being in New Zealand in 2005 but had only been enacted at a state and territory level in Australia, often with a different name. How might we account for these divergences? This article offers a comparative account of the Australian and New Zealand situation in order to explain the different trajectories. It marks out some important political, legal and constitutional contextual issues, personalities and practices that shaped the ways in which the movement for marriage equality was enabled, resisted, and had an impact on people who wanted to marry.