Labor keeps up pressure on Coalition over same-sex marriage conscience vote
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Version 0 of 1. Labor will keep up the pressure on the Coalition to make clear where it stands on granting a conscience vote on same-sex marriage by resuming a debate on its private member’s bill on Monday. The bill was introduced in the last sitting week of parliament by the opposition leader, Bill Shorten. It seeks to remove restrictions within the Marriage Act limiting unions to between a man and a woman. Deputy opposition leader Tanya Plibersek and former government chief whip Philip Ruddock will each speak to the bill for five minutes during Monday’s allotment for private member’s business. It is unlikely Ruddock, who has flagged the possibility of a French-style system that separates marriages from civil unions, will support the Labor bill. But the former Howard government frontbencher would not be drawn on his position when contacted by Guardian Australia, saying he did not want to pre-empt his speech because he “might have other things to say” on the matter. The prime minister, Tony Abbott, last month changed his language on the same-sex marriage debate, saying it is a matter that “ought to be owned by the parliament and not by any particular party”. He had previously said the party room would decide whether or not to hold a conscience vote on the issue. Support for same-sex marriage is growing within parliament, with three Nationals MPs shifting position in recent weeks. A poll by Guardian Australia shows the number of undecided or undeclared votes in the House of Representatives means a vote on allowing gay and lesbian couples the right to marry is not yet a done deal. The Coalition MP spearheading the yes campaign, Warren Entsch, has asked for breathing room before bringing forward a vote on the issue. He wants it debated after the parliamentary winter recess is over. But Labor said the time is right for marriage equality. “What’s before us is a final challenge: to remove this last great inequality from same sex couples. How can it be fair to deny one group in our community, citizens of Australia, the legal protections and responsibilities that marriage confers?” Plibersek will ask in parliament on Monday. “In a few years time, the notion that two men who love each other, or two women who love each other, could be barred from the social and legal status that marriage confers, will seem as anachronistic as marriage laws which prevented Aboriginal Australians marrying whom they chose,” she will say. “It is time, it is well past time, that this parliament says to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex Australians – we recognise that you love. That’s more important than who you love.” Ruddock said it is “pretty hypocritical” of Labor to press the Coalition on a conscience vote, as it plans to debate a binding vote in its upcoming national conference. “This [bill] is a political exercise rather than an advocacy exercise because the way Labor is dealing with it allows them to have an internal debate,” Ruddock said. |