The passage of legislation to have referenda as part of our system would have avoided much wastage of time being spent debating the proposed changes on child marriage.
This has been promised by the last government and for over five years they did not even bring it to Parliament.
The current government is in favour of raising the age for children to get married to eighteen and we have opinions from temporary opposition senators who are against such.
They argue that their religious texts outlined earlier ages for marriage and they will like to stick to it hundreds and thousands of years after. Where are the voices of the ordinary citizens on this matter?
It would have been most appropriate if a legal system like a referendum would have captured these views from the masses to inform policy and law.
After all, the laws should be there to represent the views of the majority.
If I am to guess, the vast majority of persons would support raising the age to eighteen years; even the majority of those very same religious bodies.
It will be interesting to find out from those very same elderly gentlemen, how many of them married off their daughters and sons and even nieces and nephews under the age of eighteen.
Stephen Singh