Australia plan for vote on gay marriage hits stumbling block

The Government has warned without a plebiscite there will be no Parliamentary vote, putting the issue off until after the next election at the earliest.

Labor is also anxious about the plebiscite’s success with the prime minister handling the national vote, saying he “stuffed up” the republic referendum, the NBN and senate reforms. That leaves the opposition center-left Labor Party as the government’s only hope of getting the Senate to back a popular vote on same-sex marriage.

Labor is expected to oppose the plebiscite but is yet to finalise its position.

On Friday, Greens Leader Richard Di Natale announced on Friday his party would not support a motion to enable the plebiscite.

Bill Shorten, leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), said he had a number of problems with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s proposal to decide on the issue by a national plebiscite.

“I’m anxious Malcolm Turnbull will just stuff it up”, Mr Shorten is quoted as saying.

A UNIVERSITY lecturer says the proposed plebiscite on same-sex marriage would be not only costly but pointless.

On Monday, Education Minister Simon Birmingham said that the Coalition would not revert to a free vote if the enabling legislation was voted down.

“As Labor take the low road, we as the Coalition must – to quote the Steve Winwood 80s classic – bring a higher love”, he told his colleagues.

The latest Newspoll shows the government and Labor are deadlocked at 50-50. “If we don’t do this, the debate will be about a broken promise rather than about same-sex marriage and this will be the 19th time this [same-sex marriage] goes down the gurgler”.

The fate of a planned plebiscite on same-sex marriage looks likely to rest in the hands of Nick Xenophon and his three colleagues as Labor’s opposition to a poll strengthens.

She called on “fair-minded Australians” to continue campaigning for marriage equality and put pressure on Coalition MPs, “all those so-called moderates who are now not having the courage of their own convictions”. “It’s the job of the Parliament to deal with this question”.