Once more unto the breach, dear friends. Same Sex Marriage is about to re-surface at the top of the simmering cauldron that is #auspol, with news emerging that Tanya Plibersek will spearhead a push to scrap the conscience vote within the Labor Party caucus, and amend all ALP policy stances to provide blanket support to enacting marriage equality.
The Deputy Labor Leader, currently serving as the party’s Acting Leader, already has strong support within her own party for the move, and will bring the debate to the forefront of the party agenda in July, when the ALP meets for its National Conference.
It was at the ALP National meeting in 2011 that the party changed its platform to include support for changing the Marriage Act to include “all adult couples irrespective of sex.” However, a vote of 208 to 184 ensured that Labor MPs retained the right to opt out or vote with individual conscience should the issue ever reach the floor of Parliament. At the time, a number of MPs changed their stance to avoid any potential embarrassment to then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who was at the mercy of senior party pressure and was outwardly backing the conscience vote which would see the changes voted down in Canberra on numerous occasions.
Plibersek’s proposal would see the conscience vote option removed from the Caucus, and instead impose a binding approval of the changes that would, in theory, make all Labor MPs toe the party line and vote in favour of the change.
Speaking to Fairfax Media, Plibersek’s stance on the issue was presented firmly and left nothing to the imagination.
“Labor has always been a party that is opposed to discrimination. It is a clear question. Do we support legal discrimination against one group in this country? Or do we not?”
But the move is not without its risks. There are fears many of the current Labor MPs who remain staunch opponents of same sex marriage – more than a few of them senior parliamentarians – will simply defy the order should it be enacted, and would cross the floor in the event of a Parliament vote on the matter.
Among those who voted against the bill when it last reached the floor of the lower house in 2012 were Labor MPs Stephen Conroy, Tony Burke, Chris Bowen, Ed Husic, Joel Fitzgibbon, and Jacinta Collins. Should Plibersek’s motion pass, it’s likely that high profile Union officials will provide opposition, including Joe de Bruyn, the President of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, who is a known and noted conservative Catholic.
However, should Labor bind together and vote as a block, it would represent a huge upswing in political support for the issue. With the makeup of the senate it would register as entirely likely that the legislation would pass through the upper house. However in the lower house, where the Coalition holds a comfortable majority, the legislation would require the Abbott Government to allow a conscience vote within its own party – something which it seems resolute in ignoring.
The other added benefit that Plibersek’s push holds for Labor is the ability to take the issue to the next election as a core party policy. Studies have found that as many as 75% of all Australians firmly support the legalisation of same and intersex marriage, and championing the change would theoretically provide the party with a much needed boost in the public polls ahead of the Federal Election to be held no later than the 14th of January, 2017.
Plibersek has been a long-time supporter of same sex marriage, having been inspired by close friends in committed, same-sex relationships – some longer than that of her and her own husband.
“It’s symbolic in our society and gives legal rights and responsibilities. How is it fair that I’m allowed to get married and they can’t?”
The 2015 Labor National Conference takes place in Melbourne from the 24th ’til the 26th of July.
Photo: Stefan Postles via Getty Images.
