Allowing free vote on marriage equality will help Abbott rebuild: AME
ADVOCATES have urged Prime Minister Tony Abbott to grant the Coalition a conscience vote on marriage equality in order to rebuild his leadership status.
The calls comes in the wake of a failed Coalition party room motion to replace Abbott as PM, and polls indicating his government’s increasing lack of popularity.
Yesterday, Abbott survived the leadership spill motion against him, which failed to pass with 61 votes in his favour to 39.
Australian Marriage Equality national director Rodney Croome said if Abbott gave his party a conscience vote on marriage equality, he could “reconnect with his party and the electorate”.
“It will show he is listening to the electorate and tolerates dissent in his Party,” Croome said.
“It will also show he keeps his promises, given he said before the election that he’ll allow the Liberal Party room to decide on a conscience vote.”
According to Australian Marriage Equality, 72 per cent of Australians support marriage equality but, in the absence of a free vote, Coalition members who support it cannot vote for it.
Meanwhile, Senator David Leyonhjelm has indicated he could block government legislation unless Abbott allowed a conscience vote on his Freedom to Marry bill, which he introduced to Federal Parliament in November.
The Labor party already has a conscience vote on marriage equality, while the Greens have stated they were the “strongest supporters” of it.
Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek also has a marriage equality bill in the works, but it waiting for a Coalition conscience vote before she introduces it to parliament.
A similar proposal was put forward by former Labor MP Stephen Jones in 2012, but it was voted down by the House of Representatives, 98 to 42.
VOTE IN OUR POLL: Can marriage equality support help rebuild Tony Abbott’s leadership?
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Might take a little more change all round on many issues…
No no no the GAY community cannot let him slime his way back on their backs!
So true!
no…nothing can change he’s an absolute bully C#@T
James, ummmmmm.
Noted!
This will do nothing to fix the LNP policies on our industry and climate. It would just be a grab for votes.
Haha well since they have nothing left ;) why not make them dance?
Fuck oath Jazz Octavian Ocfemia
Lets concentrate on what is literally possible lol
Mr Abbott will never ever support equal marriage, but.. he will talk about it every time he wants to create a distraction from something else…
His talk of allowing a conscience vote before the election was all about saying what we wanted to hear.. like every single one of his other election ‘promises’.
That’s how it should be
Yes but do you really think this idiot deserves to stay in
It’s more likely to snow in Darwin
It isn’t enough , the LNP are still Fascists !!
I wouldn’t trust Abbott or the Australian government who are way to conservative labor and liberal have been in power way to long
What a sad conversation. We are doing the very thing we said shouldn’t happen. Making marriage equality a political issue. It’s a human rights issue. I’m happy for any government to take the right step forward.
Completely agree
Me too. And if they did support it to “regain” their so-called popularity (which was only ever media created anyway), how long before they reneg on all their talk? Lying, cheating snakes.
Agree. Abbott needs to be socially progressive.
The LNP would never condone SSM since they’re conservative wingnuts. There is oh, if I recall, around 60% older (not talking retirees here), religious voters that put them there. They certainly wouldn’t want their Muppet to backflip on them.
In his dreams
Abbott and his cronies will never allow for a free vote or a vote of conscience
Hilarious? If he didn’t want to do it then, then he can shove it now and we will wait!
No, I don’t believe in conscience votes
Why?
I can’t see any way in which this would help Abbott. It would just infuriate his strongest remaining supporters in the party, something he just can’t afford to do.
He’s broken every other election promise. He might as well break this one too, for the sake of consistency if nothing else.
Tony has a view that a family is just man woman and children that’s it but us transsexual people are never considered and marriage equality is a good thing for now and forever. I consider myself to be a straight woman but I find a lot of people think transsexual woman should be with a gay man when gay men don’t want to date woman its a very complicated issue and should be taught in schools… I also think like the movie divergent there are people in society like me who are divergent lol x
It shouldn’t be a Captains Call
Disagree. It would have a very negative, catastrophic effect on him and the LNP. The whole continent as a matter of fact. We are on the band wagon. We’re small people here in Australia hun to “bolster” Tony with two gay men or two women getting married. It’s cheap as chips and this statement. Have a good weekend, grab a bite to eat, something to drink and it’s irrelevant what happens in parliament with us unless, we are there. We are here… it is just a hi from up above. Be patient! You’ll have to get back with this statement from wherever you’ve been. Don’t become a loose canon with idiocy in parliament – that’s what they wait for. Inept people and they make judgments based on what and who is about, whether young/old, disabled, yobbo, gay or straight. Meaning: GET A JOB!
Agree!
I think this would help Abbott but the chances Abbott will allow this seems slim. Marriage equality should have happened by now.
Totally agree with a bit of pink too
Free votes should never be curtailed. But a LNP government is not in the interests of marriage equality.
Of course the issue of voting in Australia’s parliament on marriage equality should always be a free or “conscience” vote. I think the conservatives should always do this on issues that are really above cheap party politics. Malcolm Turnbull has always been in favour of this (as many others in the coalition) – but this Prime Minister is so morally bankrupt any change in position will not save their plummeting popularity.
Agree