The following won’t come as a surprise to anyone familiar with Eric Abetz‘ archaic opinions on marriage equality, but it still makes the blood boil.
The long-time killjoy conservative has openly admitted – much like a child chucking his toys out of a pram – that he’d be happy to contradict the Aussie public, and PM Malcolm Turnbull, if the promised national plebiscite on same-sex marriage returns a ‘yes’ vote.
Why? Because he reckons the people’s decision might not be his own “above board”.
“I would need to determine whether [the plebiscite] really is an accurate reflection [of the national view], whether it is all above board or whether the question is stacked, whether all sides received public funding,” he told Guardian Australia.
“Everyone knows my view is very strongly that a marriage between a man and a woman is the foundational institution for socialising the next generation. And every member of parliament will make up his or her mind after the plebiscite is held.
“It would be up to each member to decide whether the plebiscite accurately reflects the views of the Australian people, whether it reflects the views of their electorates and whether it is good or bad public policy in their view.”
TL:DR? Abetz is willing to flush $160m of the public’s money down the toilet if he doesn’t like the outcome of a national vote.
Australian Marriage Equality’s national director, Rodney Croome, said Abetz’s comments is proof there’s zero point spending taxpayer money on a plebiscite when the decision won’t be respected by conservative MPs.
“[His comments] show clearly that there is no point in having a plebiscite and spending $160m when politicians are going to make up their own minds anyway.”
Turnbull has previously promised that his government would 110% respect the people’s decision if a plebiscite is to occur, and anyone arguing otherwise was “not living in the real world”.
Confirmation Eric Abetz is a martian.
Source: Guardian Australia.
