Australian government undermines chances for gay marriage

In a marathon partyroom debate on Tuesday night, the Coalition decided against granting its members of parliament a free vote on marriage equality before the general election.

“If the Australian people want marriage equality they are going to have to divorce Tony Abbott at the next election”, said Jason Clare, a prominent lawmaker from the opposition Labor Party.

A cross-party bill now being drafted, which so far has the support of the Greens and senators Ricky Muir, Jacquie Lambie, Nick Xenophon, Glenn Lazarus and David Leyonhjelm, would require Australians to cast a vote on gay marriage at the same time they go to the polls for the election.

Abbott has given no details on how a public vote on gay marriage would occur or when but opposition leader Shorten said a plebiscite had not been held in Australia since 1976.

Mr Abbott said it is open to coalition backbenchers to cross the floor on a cross-party bill co-sponsored by Liberal MP Warren Entsch – which will come to the parliament next Monday – but he had a warning for ministers.

After a six-hour meeting, Coalition members voted they will not have a free vote on the topic.

“One of the attractions of a free vote is that it would have meant the matter would be resolved in this Parliament one way or another in a couple of weeks.

It is about just being treated like every other Australian“, she said.

Bill Shorten – who has pledged to legislate for marriage equality within 100 days of a Labor government – says the national vote is a strategy to push the issue “into the never-never”. The outcome is a victory for Abbott, a former Roman Catholic seminarian who has been described as Australia’s most socially conservative prime minister in decades.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott made a promise Wednesday that with a reelection for the Liberal Party would come the chance to put marriage equality up to a national referendum.

It can also be revealed that in May the Australian Christian Lobby – which is staunchly anti-gay marriage – called for a plebiscite on same-sex marriage in the hopes that it would fail.

Abbott’s support for a popular vote directly contradicts his view after the Irish referendum, when he said that in Australia the appropriate decider is parliament.

Federal treasurer Joe Hockey stood by Abbott’s earlier comments and reiterated that the joint party room maintained their party’s policy in deciding that marriage was to stay with man and woman.

Actor comedian Jack Black has lashed out at Mr Abbott’s stance as from “the stone ages” in an unscripted radio interview which aired Thursday.