Nick Xenophon Will Block The SSM Plebiscite, Which Probs Means It’s Dead

Nick Xenophon has confirmed that his party will vote against the Coalition‘s proposed same-sex marriage plebiscite, which means that it is unlikely to pass, given that Labor and The Greens have also signalled that they will reject the bill.

The reasoning behind the Nick Xenophon Team‘s decision is that the estimated $160M cost is too prohibitive, and that the Parliament should be making these decisions in a free vote.

“In our representative democracy we are paid to make decisions on behalf of Australians who have voted us into office,” Xenophon said in a statement. “This is a decision the parliament should make now.”

The plebiscite has been a massively contentious issue from day dot – with LGBTQIA Australians concerned that the campaign will dredge up the worst kind of homophobic sentiment, and many others wondering exactly why we should pay that much coin because Malcolm Turnbull can’t control the hardline conservatives in his partyroom.
Bill Shorten hasn’t absolutely committed Labor to rejecting the plebiscite, but it looks like that’s exactly what he’s planning. He says that Turnbull hasn’t made a strong enough case for why we should be determining this through a plebiscite:
Underpinning this debate, is that for children and families in same-sex relationships: why on earth should they be subjected to a vile, negative campaign about the quality of their parents’ relationship? Why should teenagers and young people determining their sexuality be forced to have to undergo a public campaign of vilification?

This is obviously a double-edged sword. The plebiscite is probably the shittiest way of sorting out the issue of same-sex marriage, which Australia is already well, well behind the curve on. It’s a solution which ultimately has zip to do with democracy and everything to do with Turnbull being stuck between the electorate and a stubbornly regressive wing of his party.

But, on the other hand, the failure of the plebiscite probably means that the same-sex marriage issue will be done and dusted for at least the next three years, because there’s little chance of a free vote. Notoriously conservative MP George Christensen seems to agree.
“You have to have a plebiscite,” he said. “If the Labor and the Greens don’t want one, that’s fine, no change to the Marriage Act this parliament. That suits me, it will suit a lot of other conservatives as well.”

Righto, chief. But it’s not up to Christensen – the ball is now in Labor’s court to guide where this is all going.
Source: The Guardian.
Photo: Getty Images / Darrian Traynor.

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