Labor to introduce marriage equality bill next week following Greens vote announcement

Labor to introduce marriage equality bill next week following Greens vote announcement

OPPOSITION Leader Bill Shorten has tonight said Labor will introduce a bill to amend the marriage act and recognise married same-sex couples as early as next Monday.

The announcement came just hours after South Australia Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young announced a debate on her party’s separate marriage equality bill would begin next month.

Both announcements follow the victory of the yes camp in last weekend’s Irish referendum which saw almost two thirds of voters choose marriage equality.

However, experts have told the Star Observer that significant hurdles, including the unwillingness of the Liberals to work with the Greens, could stymie both bills’ chances.

Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek, who is seconding Shorten’s motion, said: “The time for marriage equality in Australia has well and truly come.

“Together we can get this done.”

The Greens’ bill to amend the marriage act would be debated on June 18 with a vote scheduled for November 12.

“Gay and lesbian Australians deserve better than being treated as second-class citizens, it’s well time the Parliament acted,” Hanson-Young said this morning.

“Cupid doesn’t discriminate and neither should the law.”

While rumours continue to surface of growing support for same-sex marriage among Liberal MPs, the lack of a free vote on the issue for the government benches remains a major stumbling block.

“The numbers are narrow so it is quite tight but we’re relatively confident,” Australian Marriage Equality deputy national director Ivan Hinton-Teoh told the Star Observer.

However, he sounded a note of caution: “I don’t think it could pass without a free vote.”

Nevertheless, Hinton-Teoh said recent comments by Prime Minister Tony Abbott indicated he might now be open to changing his position on a free vote for his Liberal colleagues, if not his personal opposition to marriage equality.

“There is strong community sentiment behind marriage equality and I think he understands that and he is under pressure from within his party to reflect that support,” he said.

Rejecting calls for a referendum yesterday, Abbott said a conscience vote on marriage equality was a matter for the Liberal party room and would only be discussed when legislation was introduced.

Today’s flurry of announcements may lay the ground work for that party room discussion.

Dr Stewart Jackson, a politics lecturer at the University of Sydney, told the Star Observer that the Irish referendum has boosted the campaign.

“Ireland has made a difference because there so staunchly Catholic and there’s a feeling if they can do it why can’t we?” he said.

Jackson said the Greens’ announcement was part of a strategy to keep momentum on the issue going and “because its writes the Greens back into the story”.

However, he said the major parties might not take kindly to the Greens taking the credit for marriage equality if its introduction became inevitable.

“They don’t want to give extra oxygen to minor parties they don’t have to give,” Jackson said.

NSW Liberal Democrat Senator David Leyonhjelm, who introduced his own marriage equality bill in March, said neither bill was likely to win.

“Labor and Greens have no sway over the Liberal party and aren’t making progress and this won’t prompt the Liberals into considering a conscience vote,” he told the Star Observer.

Leyonhjelm said that in contrast, the language of his bill was more likely to win over wary Liberal MPs.

“They’re arguing from the equality perspective and I’m arguing for the perspective of get the government out of your life,” he said.

“We haven’t lost anyone on the left but we’ve made progress on the right.”

Leyonhjelm said to rush to a vote — without open and active support from those Liberal MPs in favour — could be fatal for the marriage equality movement.

“If they do bring it in on, I’ll vote for it but my expectation is it wouldn’t succeed due to partisan politicians,” he said.

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34 responses to “Labor to introduce marriage equality bill next week following Greens vote announcement”

  1. It could all be so simple but grandstanding Shorten has to get in the way and politicise it thereby risking it going through sooner rather than later.
    Tony Abbott has given every indication he wants to do the right thing by not preventing it going through despite his personal objection to it – but he wants it to go through with the whole parliament doing it as it is such a major reform. The intention is honourable and decent enough – but that’s not good enough for Shorten who is trying to hijack it as his own- and as such it will fail because the Libs are quite rightly not going to allow him to get away with it. Shorten and the dumbest Labor voters are too thick to realise the obvious.

  2. Way too many bills – not enough votes to get them over the line as per usual!

    • Which bill?

      Electricity Bill… Only Joking!

      There are already 3 of them gathering huge amounts of dust!

      Just for fucking sake pass all 3 of the gay marriage bills and end this silly stupid debate and finally move on to something more pressing!

  3. Yeh and Bill Shorten is now turning this into his circus, fein-est howa, 15 mins of being COOL… wanker! UUn seat him immediately Tanya Pilbersek… it obviously takes a woman!

  4. Why is Tony Abbott continually BLOCKING this much-needed and long overdue marriage equality reform?!

    Is it because Tony Abbott is a total typical bigoted cunt?!

  5. This is a cheap political stunt by Labor/Greens trying to “woo” us into voting for them – it will not work Labor! The bill will still fail by about 22 votes because the Liberals DO NOT HAVE A FREE VOTE on SSMs! Sorry a bit late now Labor/Greens, but I will only keep supporting the ASP by vote 1 for the Australian Sex Party (ASP)!

    Remember back between 2010 and 2013 under the Labor/Green alliance federal government they had there chance on passing SSMs and blew it out clear of the water!

  6. Publicity stunt indeed. If Shorten was serious he would mandate a binding vote for the ALP as Plibersek suggests. He knows it will fail but he could effect change if he were serious.

    • he wants it done now. quickly. so that Western Sydney electorates (with the no voting MPs who don’t want to be bound to vote yes) will forget the the ALP stance in time for the election. Then Plibersek can tell her inner city electorate about how much she fought for equality ….but still belongs to a party that didn’t bind their vote purely for political reasons.

  7. im not a gay man but every man and women deserves to be happy and love whoever their heart desires. i support my gay and lesbian friends regardless of how the government see their love. pride to you all

  8. I wouldnt think shorten would do it without being certain of a victory. If it fails abbott will surely face a severe loss at the polls

    • Hahaha well yes but surely he isn’t stupid enough to sign his own death warrant in such a public manner. Surely he must know by taking a stance against a conscious vote will truly cement his loss??? I mean is he really that stupid

    • They are doing it now so that they can get the best of both worlds. A failed vote this non election year allows enough time for conservative electorates to forget the ALP’s stance and Plibersek telling her inner city electorate she fought hard for equality (when she did no such thing). If Newtown hadn’t fallen to the Greens in the NSW election the ALP wouldn’t be in such a tizz about losing seats to a progressive left wing party in the inner city whilst still trying to hold onto conservative seats in the outer suburbs.

    • Both parties have had their own bills for a while now, but these announcements refer to the dates that both will (finally) be brought into Parliament.

      • It is clearly a cheap publicity stunt by both Labor and the Greens at trying to get more LGBT voters! The Liberals do not have a free vote – IT WILL FAIL!