‘I will vote yes for same-sex marriage’: Turnbull
Image: Malcolm Turnbull. Photo: Ann-Marie Calilhanna
PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull has revealed he will vote ‘yes’ for same-sex marriage in the upcoming plebiscite, and he expects it will be legalised.
Speaking on Hobart’s 7HOFM 101.7, Mr Turnbull said he expects same-sex marriage to be legalised after the plebiscite.
“I will be voting yes to legalise same-sex marriage and I think the plebiscite will be carried, and I think there will be a positive vote,” he said.
“It’s important that we’re able to have national conversations and debates on issues like this.”
When asked by the show’s host Anna whether she should start shopping for wedding gifts, Mr Turnbull said: “I think you’re unlikely to be disappointed”.
But Mr Turnbull maintained that a plebiscite – which has been criticised by LGBTI activists – was still the best way to make the decision.
“All the opinion polls I’ve seen on the question on whether parliament should decide on the issue of same-sex marriage or the people via a plebiscite, show a very big majority in favour of a plebiscite,” he said.
“There’s no question it’s not the traditional way of resolving matters like this in Australia but this was the view taken by the Coalition party room – it was before I was prime minister. But nonetheless, it’s a view we are committed to and it is thoroughly democratic.
“And I can understand it is frustrating for those people who want to get on with it, and obviously it has a cost associated with it, that a parliamentary vote would not.”
No date has been set for the plebiscite.
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Tony Abbott has been successful in stripping away momentum from the campaign for marriage equality and it is most unlikely a plebiscite will achieve more than 50% of the vote. There’s a difference between what people tell opinion pollsters and what they do in the privacy of the voting booth.
The best way to achieve marriage equality is to vote for a Labor government.
Dear Malcolm Turnbull, thanks for NOTHING !!!
Now we’re off to the polls Turnbull wants to shore-up any Lib voting same-sex attracted people that might get a shaky hand thinking about putting a number 1 for the Turnbull/Abbott government at the election. And there are a few, especially in newly nervous Kelly O’Dwyer’s Higgins electorate.
What the slick Turnbull doesn’t want you to focus on is the harm and damage a plebiscite does to vulnerable same-sex attracted and gender diverse people exposed to the homophobic vitriol that will be funded to bring anti-marriage speakers to the national debate.
Scrap the plebiscite and have parliament undo the wrong committed by them in having marriage law apply to some Australians but not all of us.
The easiest way of scrapping the plebiscite is to remove the Coalition government and install Bill Shorten as PM to enable marriage equality in the first 100 days of the new parliament.
Turnbull’s had eight months to say WHEN the plebiscite will be and WHAT question will be asked.
Silence. No date and no detail on the unwanted plebiscite.
Shorten will scrap the plebiscite and introduce legislation for marriage equality within 100 days of becoming Prime Minister.
Turnbull at his slippery best… Fully aware of the huge portion of LGBTI voters in his electorate, he’s squirming comfortably on the fence!
Can’t allow a free vote for fear of losing the support of his keepers, but afraid to fully comply for fear of losing votes!
Bottom line… There was no plebiscite deemed necessary when the marriage act was amended in 2004 to exclude same sex couples, why are we wasting time and money and causing all this angst with one now???
Yes Malcolm Turnbull, it will be truly a joyful experience to be eyeballed on a late night train while above the idiots head, is a tax payer funded sign, informing the public we are destroying children. The plebiscite is
apartheid. Where was the plebiscite when the Marraige Act was changed to exclude us? We are talking about state sanctioned terror the Prime Minister of Australia is supporting. He has 15 police around him at any time, while have nothing between us an that idiot eyeballing us on a late night train.