$15m slated for both sides of plebiscite vote, date picked

Daniel Andrews the Victorian Premiere said such a public vote would ignite a “harmful, spiteful debate”.

The Turnbull government’s plan to hold a national vote on marriage equality on February 11 next year looks set to defeated in the Senate, with ALP leader Bill Shorten signalling the Opposition will block the proposal. “If marriage is an institution created to support people of the opposite sex to be faithful to each other and to the children of their union, it is not discrimination to reserve it to them”. The citizens would be appointed by Attorney-General George Brandis.

Liberal senator Dean Smith has already said he will not vote for it.

Turnbull’s conservative Liberal Party does not have a majority in the Senate, which means he will need the support of the opposition Labor party in order to pass the bill.

Dean Smith said a national poll on the issue would establish a risky precedent and pointed out no plebiscite supporters were calling for peoples’ votes on issues such as euthanasia.

Elsewhere in his speech, Mr Shorten denied that his party is trying to take “credit” for equal marriage by filing a backbench bill and blocking the plebiscite.

Eddie and his mums watched from the public gallery as Ms Plibersek questioned Malcolm Turnbull why a 13-year-old boy should “have to put up with a $7.5 million campaign by people who have never met him, telling him that there is something wrong with his family”?

The proposed question – “Do you support a change in the law to allow same-sex couples to marry?” – was generally perceived as fair by moderate and conservative Liberals who spoke to Fairfax Media on Tuesday morning.

But according to many outside of the government, the landmark moment has been soured by the condition that taxpayer money will be given to both sides of the “yes” or “no” argument. “There’s probably been a bit of inflation since then”. “There will be no plebiscite, it won’t get up”, he told Sky News.

The plebiscite (another word for a referendum) has been criticised for its cost – around £90.9million – as well as it potentially provoking hate crimes against the LGBT community.

During the election campaign Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said there was “ample time” for a plebiscite to be held this year.

Bill Shorten, after slamming the Government’s planned poll for several weeks but offering no concrete advice on whether Labor would actually oppose, is expected to instruct caucus to block the bill.

Australia is seen as lagging behind a growing number of countries on marriage reform despite strong popular support for marriage equality. “There’s probably a similar size group of colleagues who would have preferred that it be less or nothing”.

“It’s been a very one-dimensional debate about the love of two people but there’s been very little discussion about the consequences”, managing director Lyle Shelton told ABC radio.