POLL: Can gay marriage support rebuild Tony Abbott’s leadership?

POLL: Can gay marriage support rebuild Tony Abbott’s leadership?

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RELATED STORY: Allowing free vote on marriage equality will help Abbott rebuild: AME

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102 responses to “POLL: Can gay marriage support rebuild Tony Abbott’s leadership?”

  1. If Abbott came out now & said he was all for marriage equality no one would believe him. Anyway his right wing Catholicism won’t let him

  2. Sorry, but I cast my vote on far more than LGBTI issues. Why should that single issue make any difference whatsoever to the perception of his truly dire leadership?

    And if any of my queer mates were naive enough to switch political allegiance on Abbott’s offering of this conscience vote? I’d walk them through a raft of other issues where the LNP have a questionable record, see where they stand on those…

  3. I don’t think Australia cares if people get married or not. Let alone Tony. I did hear a young teenager saying it’s OK to get married, and a few comments of this/that. I’m Macedonian Orthodox where does that stand with me? If I wanted to get married I prefer a priest, but it probably would be a niente situation if I asked. If my partner was still alive we wouldn’t have married. He hung himself. Just young love & blood. I personally am taken aback & offended mostly how mainstream AUS and gay people don’t use priests. Isn’t your marriage void if there isn’t a saying by God? By my traditional standards it is. No? Let just things ride… and bask the sun – it’s a huge big land called the continent of AUS and we are nowhere near ready for gay marriage. We’re far off the mark to the point where someone can’t get their cock ring off and lemonpiss (lesbian woman, diva, lipstick, you, name it) has her strap-on on in the shower *cough* “Hi… Tony!” You should see what’s happening in the lounge room, who’s there, the paraphernalia & the wine… whoever. No. I don’t think it would be a good point or a valid one at that if it would gain momentum. Because Malcolm or Bill would want the same. Catch 22 – silly doggy situation. People will ask for help though. I would like to christen my son/daughter and as I said get married by a priest. My partner would be skeptical of me if we didn’t as I’m that religion. As far as a celebrant. No! I would look like an atheist there… agnostic I am there and a total dickhead. Notice how the female celebrants always wear hats. The mitre situation? My dad’s name is Mitre. As in MITRE10. Oh… and Mardi Gras falls on dad’s birthday every year :-) Cheers x

    • My life is not meaningless or void because I do not believe in the existence of any god. I would like the right to marry my partner, and would never choose to have it officiated by a religious official. Marriage is a civil right that should be enjoyed by all, and should not be controlled by churches.

    • I think you understand but you’re trying for different ways to fit in. Right? Would you actually feel AS equal as an heterosexual couple? See, they actually procreate!! HALLO!

      • The Australian Marriage Act does not require couples to be able to procreate in order to be married. Neither do most churches. Even the Catholic church only requires couples to be able to have sex in a manner that may lead to procreation, even though they may be sterile. Procreation may be a product of some marriages, but it is not a pre-requisite to marriage.

  4. Agreed, Abbott would only permit the vote to save his skin as P.M. thus allowing all the world to clearly see the hypocrite he truly is, Not to allow equality to the Gay, Lesbian etc etc community but solely just to save his precious position as P.M.

  5. Why would you ‘Star Observer’allow this man to use us for votes because he’s a liar. Now that he’s desperate to save his job, gw zones on board with Gay marriage. Stop allowing us ‘the gay community ‘ to be used and spat out when this despicable man doesn’t need us. It would never pass with a LNP govt anyway.

  6. I don’t care about the motivation. As long as it’s marriage equality (gender non-specific) then great. It’s not like our community would giving anything up to get it. To those who don’t want to be used as a political football, I’m dreadfully sorry, but that ship sailed long ago, when the ALP/greens tried to use it as a wedge issue at the last federal election.

    I don’t think it’ll do the trick to save his bacon, as the issue just doesn’t seem to have the priority with the electorate for it to be a vote-changer at the moment.

  7. It won’t. The average Australia is indifferent or not as passionate about marriage equality as the LGBT community is. Probably going to take a few more years with a lot of work to achieve it.

    • More than half of Aust is for marriage equality, and 2/3 are either for it or indifferent. The people against it are now a miserable minority, and even many of those people are at least willing to admit the change won’t personally affect them so what’s the fuss. Of course the majority is never going to be super passionate about a human rights issue that affects a small portion of the community, but that never changes. There’s no reason this change couldn’t happen in 2015, if people got angrier about it. The public is ready for it. The only thing in the way is Abbott and his passion for discrimination. Why should people who want equality just sit back and give up because of one bigot (I’m labelling him a bigot not just because of his current stance, but for his years of attacks on gay rights)?
      Alabama now has marriage equality but Sydney doesn’t. Disgusting. And we can lay the blame on one man.

    • The public believes it should be in place however it’s not a priority for most Australians. They have no problem with gays being able to marry but they have other things that are more relevant to their own lives. A lot of people might be ok with it but they’re not going to “get angry” about it. Australia is still a pretty homophobic place.

      I’m not saying we should give up … I’m saying the opposite. We have to work harder at making it a more important and relatable issue for the average Australian, as well as presenting LGBT as diverse and average everyday people.

      Without that, it won’t happen unfortunately until we get a more in-touch, modern government. I doubt that will happen with the Liberals. Tony Abbott has shown with him surviving this leadership spill that he is pretty determined to have his own way. So unless someone is able to massively change his mind (which I doubt is possible considering his own flesh and blood sister is a lesbian) I extremely doubt it will happen this year.

  8. Tony Abbott would only allow this conscience vote if he thought would keep him in The Lodge, not because he wanted to change discrimination or equality. He loves the job not the people who voted him into it.

    • A politician making a pro-human rights move to win votes would be fine with me. A large majority of Australians are actually FOR marriage equality now (see the Essential poll results that came out this week).
      The scary thing with Abbott is that even though his popularity is at an all time low, he’d rather it stay that low than make a move towards equality, because that’s how strong his dedication to maintain discrimination is.

  9. Now that this has all come up, it does nothing to improve his standing with me. As Robin Hutchens said, I will not be used as a political football!
    Perhaps if he had done it of his own accord, I’d be more inclined to believe in his sincerity of the issue, but seeing as same-sex marriage is being totted as Abbott’s saving grace it will only worsen mu opinion of him should he go through with it.
    Either way, I’ve never supported the LNP, and never will.

  10. Can “gay marriage” support rebuild Tony Abbott’s leadership?
    What is “gay marriage?” I’m just married, not “straight married.” If the people fighting for the cause can’t even get the fact that it is “marriage” – equal marriage between two people of the same sex and two people who are of opposite sex – what hope have you got of convincing anyone else that you are seeking equality and not something different and special?
    AME should drop this idea of Tony Abbott allowing a “free vote” on the issue too. I couldn’t give a damn what a politician’s personal or religiously influenced views of same sex marriage are. The majority of the Australian voters say they are ok with it. That’s all it should take for every single politician in Canberra to legalise it. They ar elected to REPRESENT their electorates, not their own beliefs. Demand that they do their jobs and represent us for once.
    Enough of this insipid language which makes us all sound as if we are pleading and begging for something which should have been done years ago. I do not support Marriage Equality, I DEMAND it and I demand it happen NOW.

      • Huh??? What’s wrong with acknowledging it’s a gay couple getting married?
        It’s wildly perverse that this push for an alleged ‘civil right’ is flushing out internalized homophobia!

    • Krys: I want you to have that marriage. I regret eery day that I did not run for the Senate at the last Federal Election. As admin for the page; Same Sex Relationships are Normal and Natural and someone who has had a high public profile in sales and product promotions, I could have won a Senate seat.
      It would have been easy to have secured more than the 1800 votes which gave a Senate seat to the Motoring Enthusiasts Party Candidate, when he only ran as a publicity stunt.
      If I knew that we could harness the support of GLBTI people and supporters to vote for one person for the Senate at the next election, I would happily put my hand up and change careers to fight for this cause full time. I would be very vocal about our politicians running the country like a professional business too, instead of their irresponsible and childish behaviour we have seen for many years now in Parliamentary chambers.