Federal politics: Malcolm Turnbull faces spill over gay marriage

SENIOR conservative Liberals are warning Malcolm Turnbull his leadership is “terminal” if he can’t stop party MPs from crossing the floor to support a parliamentary conscience vote for same-sex marriage.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the 2016 Mardi Gras parade.

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PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership is “terminal” if he cannot stop MPs from his own faction crossing the floor on same-sex marriage, senior conservative Liberals said.

As a group of moderate MPs called for a conscience vote on gay marriage as early as next week, senior Liberals told The Daily Telegraph they will move a spill motion on Mr Turnbull’s leadership if his government breaks its election promise and allows MPs to cross the floor in a vote on the issue.

The Right faction is lining up a ticket to replace Mr Turnbull, should this occur. Faction leaders said the most likely new leadership team would have Peter Dutton as leader, with Greg Hunt as deputy, rolling Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the 2016 Mardi Gras parade.

“It’s terminal. If Turnbull can’t control the moderates, what’s the point of his prime ministership?” one senior Liberal asked.

The Right faction leaders, who have been supporting Mr Turnbull, warned the spill would be called if the PM failed to bind members of his own moderate faction to the party policy of a plebiscite on same sex marriage taken to the 2016 federal election.

A second senior Liberal told the Telegraph that if there seems to be a “green light” for Liberal MPs to cross the floor, “then someone will move a spill very soon after in response because you’ve lost control of the House of Representatives.”

Mr Turnbull and wife Lucy at Mardi Gras, He’s facing a serious challenge over the issue of gay marriage.

The senior Liberal said: “It would put Malcolm’s leadership under threat.”

The senior Liberal made it clear he supported Mr Turnbull’s leadership, but this would be an issue that entirely loses the Liberal Party base.

“I don’t want there to be a change of leadership. I want Malcolm to lead us to victory at the next election. But you can’t have a situation where we completely lose control of the parliament,” he said.

Editorial: People deserve same-sex vote

“Effectively it says to our base, ‘We just don’t care about you.’ There are people sticking with the Liberal Party and the National Party, despite the difficulties we’ve had, because of our stance on issues like marriage.”

A group of moderate MPs, including Warren Entsch, Dean Smith, Tim Wilson, and Trevor Evans — supported by Christopher Pyne — have been working secretly behind the scenes to allow a conscience vote in Parliament on same sex marriage.

Moderate: Tim Wilson. Picture: Gary Ramage

Moderate: Trevor Evans Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen/The Australian

The plan is to distribute a private member’s bill for same sex marriage this week. If that vote fails to achieve an outcome when Parliament sits next week, the MPs would side with Labor and members of the crossbench to pass gay marriage in Australia.

Moderate: Christopher Pyne.

Mr Evans said he would be prepared to exercise his right to a conscience vote and cross the floor.

In response, Mr Turnbull said backbenchers “have always had the right to cross the floor”.

“It’s a very different political culture to the very authoritarian and centrally controlled culture of the Labor Party,” he said.

The Right will call for Dean Smith to resign as whip, while they plan to roll Mr Wilson at his next preselection in his seat of Goldstein, reminding him the Right have the numbers in his seat. Some in the LNP have threatened to disendorse Mr Evans if he crosses the floor.

“Tim Wilson is gone, Evans is going to get disendorsed, and (moderate leader Trent) Zimmerman will probably get challenged anyway,” one senior Right MP said.