On Thursday, the marriage equality debate received the political renewal it desperately deserves, as Liberal Democratic Senator David Leyonhjelm pushed for the LNP to allow a conscience vote on his marriage equality bill in their party room this week.
Leyonhjelm, as politically polarising as he may be, has campaigned for marriage equality to be taken seriously by the government at a time when Nazi gaffes, onions served à la Tone, Knightmares and playing the bully over Human Rights reports overshadow the House of Representatives actually getting anything done.
At this point, push is coming to shove, and so Tony Abbott‘s openly gay sister and Liberal Party Councillor in Sydney Christine Forster spoke out on marriage equality and Leyonhjelm’s bill last night on Sky News’ Viewpoint.
“I absolutely will be lobbying my brother, and I hope the party room makes enough noise about this,” Forster said last night about the marriage equality bill.
Forster went on to confirm her brother Tony Abbott’s personal position on gay marriage, but said she hoped a conscience vote would be put on the table for the Liberal Party room to decide.
“Tony’s position has been well stated, and it’s on the record that he doesn’t support any changes to the marriage act, but I hope the party room tells him that they very firmly believe it’s a conscience issue, and he will abide by what they [the party room] tell him.”
Looking forward to seeing Senator David Leyonhjelm’s marriage equality bill in the Senate next week @AMEQUALITY #equallove #freevote #auspol
— Christine Forster (@resourcefultype) March 20, 2015
Last month, SBS 2 interviewed Christine Forster and her fiance Virginia Edwards, where Forster described herself as a “Small “L” liberal and a big “L” lesbian,” and added that she was “just a regular lesbian about town.” On her brother’s views on same sex marriage, Forster said: “I think he’s wrong, but he entitled to his own views.”
Watch below.
Meanwhile…
via The Australian.
Lead image by Stefan Postles via Getty.
