Bloody hell.
Despite the Coalition staunchly clinging to the idea of a holding plebiscite on marriage equality – an extremely costly exercise that thousands are worried will cause harm to queer Australians, particularly young people – Malcolm Turnbull has just confirmed one of the strongest arguments against holding it: that Coalition MPs will not be bound by it.
He confirmed today that regardless of how the Australian people vote, MPs in his party will still be allowed a free vote.
“The tradition in the Liberal Party is that on matters of this kind it is a free vote,” said Turnbull. “I have no doubt that if the plebiscite is carried, as I believe it will be, that you will see an overwhelming majority of MPs and senators voting for it.”
He gave the example of that noted victim of bigotry Scott Morrison, an opponent of same-sex marriage who will apparently be voting whichever way the plebiscite demands.
Labor‘s Penny Wong is not pleased.
Malcolm Turnbull didn’t give supporters of marriage equality a free vote before the election… 1/2
— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) June 24, 2016
…But will give opponents of marriage equality a free vote after the election. Traded his principles for the leadership. 2/2
— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) June 24, 2016
This is Hansard, October last year pic.twitter.com/KYyMCueQJv
— Sean Kelly (@mrseankelly) June 24, 2016
On the other hand, he’s now backed-up Eric Abetz‘ comments from earlier this year, when the strongly conservative senator said that that Coalition MPs would not be bound by the plebiscite, thus rendering the whole exercise pointless. (He also said he’d be very heavily checking that the plebiscite was an “accurate reflection” of the public view, which is worrying in the extreme, if he’s basing himself as the guideline for neutrality.)
Source: The Guardian.
Photo: Getty / Greg Wood.
