Gay senator opposes Australian plan for marriage equality

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will be forced to wait another three weeks to find out if Labor will reverse course and vote for a $170 million national plebiscite on gay marriage to be held on February 11, 2017.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull introduced the government’s plebiscite-enabling legislation into the House of Representatives on Wednesday but Labor is expected to block it in the Senate. The move is creating opposition [press release] by same sex-marriage advocates who believe the non-binding measure is delaying the granting of rights to same-sex couples.

Government MPs agreed on Tuesday both “yes” and “no” campaigns will receive $7.5 million, with money distributed by a ten-person “citizen’s panel” made up of parliamentarians and members of the public.

The compulsory vote, a “carefully considered proposal”, the prime minister continued, will be conducted in a “thoroughly fair manner”.

In Question Time Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek said in a question to Turnbull: “This morning I met 13-year-old Eddie, who is visiting Canberra today with his two mums, asking parliament to block a plebiscite”.

Labor marriage equality spokeswoman Terri Butler described the speech as “weak” and “inconsequential”, and said it was “humiliating” for Mr Turnbull to mark his anniversary by introducing Mr Abbott’s policy.

“History will record Malcolm Turnbull as a fraud on marriage equality, the man who had the opportunity to make it happen but cowered in the face of Tony Abbott, Kevin Andrews and Eric Abetz, the Prime Minister who broke the nation’s heart”.

“He (Malcolm Turnbull) is deliberately sabotaging the process to make it hard for even the most ardent supporters of marriage equality to back it”.

“It is vital that we respect all of those views in this debate”. But such a plebiscite has no legal weight and the Parliament would ultimately decide whether the law would be changed.

A campaign to allow same-sex marriage in Australia looks set to stall as political parties squabble over whether to give voters a say on the matter.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten called the plan too expensive, instead proposing a separate bill on Monday to legalise same-sex marriage via a parliamentary vote.

S&P Global Ratings cut the outlook on Australia’s AAA credit score in July to negative from stable, saying the poll result potentially dented the government’s prospects for shrinking a deficit forecast to reach A$37.1 billion next year.

“Was Penny Wong a homophobe when she opposed same-sex marriage?”

Now that Labor has reportedly chose to block the plebiscite, we’re on the latter path.

“The idea of young people, perhaps yet to come out, seeing the legitimacy of their identity debated on the national stage-that is not an ordeal which we should inflict on any citizen when we have a better path”.