Liberal Senator Dean Smith drafts marriage bill to debate this year
Image: Senator Dean Smith.
MARRIAGE equality advocates are hopeful that a free vote for same-sex marriage will soon be allowed, after Liberal Senator Dean Smith confirmed he is drafting a bill.
Smith has not been rebuked by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over the bill, according to ABC News.
“In our party room members are allowed to raise whatever issues they like,” said Turnbull.
Marriage equality advocate Rodney Croome of just.equal said the bill and its being allowed by the Prime Minister are positive developments.
“The Prime Minister seems OK with this path being forged,” said Croome.
“The best thing the Prime Minister can do now I think is just step out of the way and allow his party room to decide if they will have a free vote or not.”
Smith, who crossed the floor against the plebiscite bill in the Senate, has said he wants action on marriage equality before the next election.
“I am of the strong and clear view the matter should be discussed again and resolved before the end of this parliamentary year,” he said.
“I have been consistent and remain of the view the plebiscite lacks community support and a conscience vote is a tried and trusted method to resolve issues such as same-sex marriage.”
Smith said the bill will allow any two people to marry, while protecting religious freedom.
Croome hopes marriage equality could be on the horizon as early as August, when parliament is due to sit again.
And about time too!
Isn’t it time the Coalition stopped this nonsense about fulfilling Tony Abbott’s “Designed to Fail” silly Plebiscite?
The entire concept was, like everything Tony Abbott did and is doing, a massive Confidence Trick, a Scam.
He like all of us should know, knows full well that even if such a Plebiscite passed with approval by 100% of Voters NO Government is required to pay the slightest bit of attention to it as Plebiscites are nothing more than “Surveys” and the results are NOT Binding on any Government.
The Senate, thanks to the ALP, have refused to pass the Legislation setting up this con-job. That should be the end of this con-job altogether.
Turnbull should stop this nonsense about this Plebiscite.
He should simply bring on the Legislation and give all MPs & Senators a Free Vote on the issue. Should any of them vote against Equality then in 2019 we can take our revenge and toss’em out!
It was an Abbott Promise and we all know what his promises were worth, don’t we?.
At least with the Libs their politicians are allowed, indeed they are encouraged, to speak out and bring forward Private Member’s Bills without fear of being thrown out of the Party as happens in the ALP if one of their politicians goes against Party Policy.
Let’s get this over and done with. Tony Abbott kept none of his promises. Malcolm Turnbull is under No Obligation to keep any of Abbott’s false promises.
Interesting stuff, it seems contrary to earlier reports that Chris Pyne’s indiscreet comments to moderate Liberals hasn’t sabotaged Dean Smith and Trent Zimmerman as feared. Only a few Libs would have to cross the floor for the right wingers to be defeated and for Australia to bring itself up to standard as far as recognising civil liberties is concerned. I really don’t think Turnbull wants this issue to still be around come the next election, and in any case I think he’d be happy to include marriage equality on his list of achievements as PM (even though he pretends to be unenthusiastic to shut up Andrew Bolt).
That said, I wonder how crossbench senator David Leyonhjelm will vote given that his new besty (or perhaps his new nemesis?) Mark Latham appears to have tied the Liberal Democrats to opposing marriage equality. Leyonhjelm has been on side before, but he doesn’t seem to have disagreed with Latham’s recent comments and Latham presumably is still a front-runner to be preselected for office by the LDP.