But while opposition members are openly accusing the Prime Minister of introducing legislation he doesn’t want, some inside the government are quietly agreeing with them.
Advertisement
Labor has chose to block the-plebiscite on same-sex marriage, killing off any prospect for gay couples to get married for several years. It will allocate $7.5 million of public funds to both the “yes” and “no” campaigns.
Labor effectively brought forward its decision by indicating Bill Shorten would recommend to caucus when it next met in three weeks that Labor should block the plebiscite.
The chances of Australians having their say on same-sex marriage are fading rapidly after strong hints from the main opposition party that it’ll block the vote.
“The idea that any group of people would have their relationships measured and discussed and have people talk about whether they have a value at all to society – there’s no way to conceive that wouldn’t be a hard journey”, Tiernan Brady, the director of Australian Marriage Equality, told CNN. They caution that public debate on same-sex marriage would legitimize discriminatory views, giving bigots a wider platform for spreading homophobia.
“That insults the Australian people. That disrespects the Australian people”.
“What type of prime minister would Mr Turnbull be if he didn’t have a plan B up his sleeve here”, he said. “It doesn’t have the same kind of implications, far-reaching, often unknowable implications, for example, voting on Brexit as the British did recently”. You have been Prime Minister for a year now. Party conservatives forced Turnbull, a supporter of LGBT rights, to keep the policy when he became leader.
He asked: “Given the majority of parliamentarians and Australians now support marriage equality, is a $160 million plebiscite necessary?”
The plebiscite will be held on February 11.
“It shows how weak he is – that he’s willing to put extremists above what he genuinely believes, that a plebiscite is a awful idea”.
“Many LGBTI people welcome a leader who is sensitive to the hurt and harm a plebiscite will cause us”, Faulkner said. “So let’s stop putting unsafe ideas in people’s heads and debate this proposal on the merits, shall we?”
“We call on the Senate, and particularly the Labor Party, to listen to the LGBTIQ community and vote against a plebiscite”.
However Attorney-General George Brandis said there was no guarantee there would be funding provided.
“We are committed to people supporting each other and sticking together… to enable their dreams”, he said.
Advertisement
What we do now matters.
