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Marriage equality: Bill Shorten signals Labor will block plebiscite, saying PM would 'stuff it up' Marriage equality: Bill Shorten signals Labor will block plebiscite, saying PM would 'stuff it up'
(about 2 hours later)
Malcolm Turnbull’s plan for a same-sex marriage plebiscite looks to have run its race, with the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, signalling Labor will block it.Malcolm Turnbull’s plan for a same-sex marriage plebiscite looks to have run its race, with the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, signalling Labor will block it.
Shorten has told Fairfax Media he fears a popular vote will fail and set back the cause. The opposition to the plebiscite from Labor, the Greens and several minor parties has led to warnings marriage equality may be off the agenda for years and has been welcomed by conservative MPs that do not want to see the social reform at all.
“I’m worried Malcolm Turnbull will just stuff it up,” he is quoted as saying. “He stuffed up the republic referendum, he stuffed up the NBN and he stuffed up Senate reforms when he promised to fix it.” Turnbull has hit back at Labor, saying he is confident the legislation will pass and accusing the opposition of peddling an “anti-democratic” argument that the chance same-sex marriage may be voted down is a reason to prevent the popular vote.
The Sydney Morning Herald says Shorten’s leadership group discussed the issue behind closed doors last week and, while no final decision was made, they appear likely to vote the plebiscite down. In an interview with Fairfax Media, Shorten said: “I’m worried Malcolm Turnbull will just stuff it up.
The paper says Labor fears Turnbull will put no effort into the “yes” campaign, allowing the well-organised and well-resourced “no” campaign to steal a march and ultimately carry the day. “He stuffed up the republic referendum, he stuffed up the NBN and he stuffed up Senate reforms when he promised to fix it.”
The report says Labor fears Turnbull will put no effort into the “yes” campaign, allowing the well-organised and well-resourced “no” campaign to steal a march and ultimately carry the day.
It claims there are growing fears within Labor that a popular vote will fail and put off the legalisation of same-sex marriage.
On the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday, Turnbull said he was confident the plebiscite-enabling legislation would pass parliament and predicted Labor would support it.
Turnbull said if Labor were briefing that the “yes” case would lose in a marriage equality plebiscite, the party “must want to delay same-sex marriage for a very long time”.
“The worst argument, the absolutely worst argument against a plebiscite is to say that it wouldn’t be passed,” he said. “So if Labor is seriously saying that, they are saying, ‘Don’t consult the Australian people because they won’t give you the answer you want.’
“It is the most anti-democratic argument.”
Turnbull said the fastest way to achieve gay marriage was to support a plebiscite.
Labor’s indication it will block the plebiscite comes after the Greens, Nick Xenophon and Derryn Hinch all indicated they intend to block it last week.
Together with Labor, this bloc controls 39 votes in the Senate, sufficient to defeat the plebiscite enabling legislation.
The growing opposition to the plebiscite has led to warnings from pro same-sex marriage Coalition MPs that blocking the plebiscite will take marriage equality off the agenda for at least this term of parliament.
The conservative MP George Christensen has welcomed the prospect the popular vote to legalise same-sex marriage may never be held.
“You have to have a plebiscite. If the Labor and the Greens don’t want one, that’s fine, no change to the Marriage Act this parliament,” he said. “That suits me, it will suit a lot of other conservatives as well.”
Australian Marriage Equality’s national spokesman, Alex Greenwich, has called for the government, opposition, Greens and Xenophon to work together on a path to marriage equality because neither side has the numbers to guarantee a parliamentary vote or a plebiscite.
Anyone saying we can/should wait for equality is doing a massive disservice to the LGBTI community - c'mon Feds, work together to win
Asked on Sky News on Sunday if he believed the same-sex marriage “yes” case would win, the Labor senator Sam Dastyari said he believed it would be carried.
But he said the plebiscite campaign would lead to “some horrible things being said and done”, including harm to 16-year-olds struggling with their sexuality and children of gay parents.
Dastyari said Labor had not given up on passing a private member’s bill to legalise same-sex marriage.
Labor’s leadership group met on Monday and discussed the same-sex marriage plebiscite. Although no final decision was made, Labor has hardened its stance against the popular vote to achieve marriage equality.
On Wednesday, Shorten prepared the ground for Labor to block the proposed plebiscite launching a stinging attack on the plan at the National Press Club.
Shorten said he and his colleagues were “on the record as opposing” and he was “gravely concerned” about its merits.
Shorten described the proposed $160m plebiscite as “nonsense” and “ridiculous”, saying that while voting would be compulsory Coalition MPs would be free to disregard its result.
He noted the former high court judge Michael Kirby’s argument that a plebiscite was a departure from the way Australia has legislated on all policy issues in the past 100 years.