Despite pushing for party policy to be amended, and grabbing a lead in the preferred opposition leader polls, Tanya Plibersek‘s call for the Labor Party to enact blanket, party-wide support for Marriage Equality has been rejected by current opposition leader and leader of the Labor Party, Bill Shorten.
“I think we have waited too long in this country for marriage equality. I do believe that the best way to achieve it, though, is not to force people to agree with it but to convince people.”
Shorten stopped short of confirming the presence of friction between himself and his Deputy following Plibersek’s announced plan, talking down her remarks earlier this week with something of a backhanded retort.
“Tanya and I are both very committed to marriage equality. I certainly have a view, though, that the best way to win the argument on marriage equality is to convince people not force them, but Tanya’s got a very long track record of speaking on this issue. I don’t think anything she said is any different to what she’s said before.”
Plibersek still plans to raise the issue at the Labor National Conference in late July. The left-wing factions of the Labor Party all stand behind her in support of scrapping the conscience vote, but they remain pessimistic about its chances of succeeding in becoming party policy.
