YOUR WEEK AHEAD

This exciting, unpredictable, edgy week crackles with fiery promise after the weepy emotionality of recent times. It's neither tepid, tame nor entirely drama free.

Marriage finds a power couple

The prospect of two men or women being joined in official matrimony is colliding with a furious push by Christian groups to establish a National Marriage Day on August 13. The National Marriage Day committee, run by the Australian Family Association, is hoping to fill the Great Hall at Parliament House next month for a breakfast marking the fifth anniversary of the 2004 amendment to the Marriage Act under former PM John Howard which redefined marriage as "the union of a man and a woman, to the exclusion of all others". The association's national vice-president, Mary-Louise Fowler, said every federal MP has been sent an invitation although only one, Eric Abetz, is signed up. Fowler said the idea was conceived at last year's AFA national conference and its timing alongside the introduction of the Marriage Equality Amendment Bill into Parliament by the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young last month was coincidental.