Same-sex marriage debate: Australians set to vote on gay marriage in November after parliamentary vote push fails
THE Turnbull government will give voters a say on gay marriage on November 25. Malcolm Turnbull said he would support a yes vote in the plebiscite.
NSW
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THE Turnbull government will give voters a say on gay marriage on November 25.
But if the governmen is unable to legislate for a mandatory plebiscite, as expected with Labor and the crossbench vowing to block the move, it would start a non-compulsory postal plebiscite in September.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said the cost of a postal plebiscite would be $122 million and it would be conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics instead of the Australian Electoral Commission.
Senator Cormann said he was confident of the legal basis for a postal ballot, and that he could appropriate up to $295 million for the vote.
He said Gough Whitlam had used a phone poll run in a similar way to change the national anthem to Advance Australia Fair.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he would support a yes vote in the plebiscite, although he said he had “many other calls on his time”.
A postal vote would start on September 12 and finish on November 15, leaving it several weeks to legislate.
The government has already said if either method returned a no vote, it would block the introduction of same sex marriage bills in parliament.
But if it returns a yes, the government would allow a free vote on the issue.
The decision to try push a plebiscite through parliament again came after a Coalition party room meeting earlier this morning and an emergency meeting of Liberal MPs yesterday.
A majority “yes” postal vote would trigger a free vote of Liberal MPs in parliament; a “no” verdict would rule this out.
Liberal MPs debated the issue for two hours behind closed doors last night.
An overwhelming majority decided to stick to its election commitment of a plebiscite.
During the meeting, which had threatened to undermine the authority of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, just seven gay marriage advocates spoke in favour of ditching the plebiscite in favour of a conscience vote in parliament.
Almost 30 MPs argued the government should not break its election promise and should again try to give Australians a say.
The Turnbull government’s second attempt to pass its policy through Parliament could happen as early as this week.
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The outcome followed a turbulent week on the issue in which five MPs broke ranks with the plebiscite policy and said they would consider crossing the floor to vote with Labor and the Greens to allow same-sex marriage.
Those five — Trent Zimmerman, Tim Wilson, Trevor Evans, Warren Entsch and Dean Smith — continued to support the free vote in the party room meeting yesterday, as did Bennelong MP John Alexander and Victorian MP Jason Wood.
Mr Entsch told colleagues he would reserve his judgment about possibly crossing the floor, although other MPs in the group of rebels are understood to be willing to wait for the outcome of a likely High Court challenge to the postal plebiscite.
Senator Cormann, speaking after the meeting, said a majority no vote in either a plebiscite or a non-compulsory postal ballot would mean the government would block any attempt at changing the Marriage Act.
But if there was majority support, the government would allow legislation to come to Parliament and allow a conscience vote on the issue.
“There would be a free vote informed by the plebiscite outcome and our expectation would be that that law would pass the Parliament,” Senator Cormann, the acting special minister of state, said. If done following a postal vote, the conscience vote would most likely take place in early December.
The Daily Telegraph first revealed in March that senior government ministers were pushing for a postal vote to break an impasse on same-sex marriage.
Australian Marriage Equality co-chair Alex Greenwich said the vote was “well beyond a joke” and activists yesterday threatened an immediate court challenge to that move, which could cost between $40 million and $100 million.
However, Senator Cormann said the government believed there would be no legal issue: “We have a legal and constitutional way forward to give the Australian people a say on whether or not the definition of marriage should be changed through a non-legislated, voluntary postal plebiscite.”
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