Marriage equality supporters at a rally last month.
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But spokesperson for LGBTI lobby group, just.equal, Ivan Hinton-Teoh, said he was hopeful that blocking a plebiscite wouldn’t block marriage equality for this term of parliament.
A small but influential centrist party on Monday joined the country’s third-biggest political force, the Australian Greens, in opposing a popular vote despite backing legalization of marriage equality.
South Australian independent Senator Nick Xenophon announced on Monday his party would vote against the legislation to enable a plebiscite.
The poll of 1,696 Australian voters found satisfaction with Turnbull has fallen to 34 percent, the lowest level since he ousted former Prime Minister Tony Abbott in September 2014.
Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek said any delay in legalising same-sex marriage was on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s head.
But the issue has become a lightning rod for political discontent within Mr. Turnbull’s Liberal-National coalition, with some conservative lawmakers staunchly opposed.
Now, members of Parliament are formally withdrawing their support for the nationwide public vote.
Bill Shorten has urged the government to adopt Labor’s $80 billion in savings, promising to be co-operative but keep the coalition to account on issues such as Medicare, school funding, same-sex marriage and a banking royal commission.
The statement said NXT’s four elected members – Senator Xenophon, Senator Stirling Griff, Senator Skye Kakoschke-Moore and Member for Mayo Rebekha Sharkie – all supported marriage equality and were “ready to vote accordingly”.
Plebiscites and referendums – which are legally-binding popular votes – rarely manage to change the status quo in Australia.
The prime minister has a one-seat majority after the party lost more than a dozen seats in July.
He said: “I expect that when a plebiscite is knocked on the head the Government will look again at a free vote, and even if a free vote isn’t allowed only a handful of Liberals need to cross the floor for marriage equality to pass”.
“The plebiscite, which in any event could be disregarded by the Parliament, could be in the order of $160 million or more”.
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Labor Leader Bill Shorten has said caucus would consider the issue once the Opposition has the details, but he has also ramped up his rhetoric against the plebiscite, calling it the “second-best option”. “We are paid to come to Canberra and to make laws and the fact that Malcolm Turnbull is so frightened of allowing that to happen I think is really a mark against him”.
