Young Nats urge conscience vote

Young National Party members are urging the party’s leadership to allow a conscience vote on same-sex marriage but one politics expert says it still won’t help marriage equality supporters.

At the recent NSW Young Nationals conference, delegates passed a motion calling on senior National Party members to allow federal representatives a conscience vote on marriage equality.

The motion will be debated at the upcoming NSW National Party conference on June 23 – 24.

NSW Young Nationals chairwoman Felicity Walker told the Star Observer there was strong support in the Young Nats for a conscience vote on the issue.

“At the end of the day, gay marriage isn’t an issue that will interfere too much with the day-to-day running of the country, and I think we need a conscience vote to allow the broad range of opinions with the Nationals to be heard,” she said.

NSW Nationals MP and former NSW Young Nationals chairwoman Sarah Mitchell MLC and fellow MP Trevor Khan MLC both expressed their support for gay marriage in NSW Parliament last week.

They also called on the federal Government to change the Marriage Act.

Sydney University’s politics expert Dr Peter Chen told the Star Observer he did not believe the Nationals would adopt a conscience vote on the issue.

“It’s not about taking a formal position but declaring the party has no formal position and allowing individual MPs to vote on the issue as they see fit,” he said.

Even if the party did introduce a conscience vote for federal MPs, Chen said it was unlikely there were many National MPs in the current Parliament who would vote for same-sex marriage.

“But if all major parties allowed this, there may be enough individuals to, if not win, demonstrate the winds of change are close,” he said.

“Normally youth wings of parties are at the vanguard of social change and have been seen to take more radical positions than the regular branches.

“Clearly some of the younger Turks are flagging where they see the National Party heading under their leadership in future.”

Nationals’ deputy leader Barnaby Joyce opposes gay marriage but has openly supported a conscience vote on it.

Australian Marriage Equality National convenor Alex Greenwich said same-sex marriage was important to many rural and regional Australians.

The NSW Young Nationals conference was held in Wagga Wagga on May 18 – 20.