Tearful Penny Wong moved by Labor’s same-sex marriage decision
PENNY Wong choked back tears as the ALP national conference debate on same-sex marriage ended with a poignant pledge.
LABOR leader Bill Shorten will move to legalise same-sex marriage in his first 100 days if he becomes prime minister.
Mr Shorten made the pledge after securing a compromise that federal Labor MPs would be bound to vote in favour of marriage equality, but not for another two elections.
Labor has tried to put a potentially damaging internal rift over the issue behind it by challenging Prime Minister Tony Abbott to allow his members a free vote on the issue.
Mr Shorten said same-sex couples had waited too long for marriage equality.
“Australia is trailing the world,” he said.
“The debate about marriage equality has simply gone on too long.” Mr Shorten said same-sex marriage legislation could pass the present parliament, calling on Mr Abbott to allow Liberal MPs a free vote.
“I know that there is a great deal of debate about ‘is the best and fastest way to make marriage equality a reality to allow every member of our parliament to have a free vote’,” he said.
“What the Labor Party does with this resolution is we lay down the challenge to Mr Abbott and his Liberals: Please give your members of parliament a free vote so we can make marriage equality a reality now.” The ALP’s Left faction has been split over the issue of a binding vote or the current conscience vote.
The compromise resolution means federal Labor MPs will be bound to vote for same-sex marriage if a bill is put before the parliament, but not until after the next two elections.
Mr Shorten’s 100-day pledge means that if the ALP wins the 2016 federal election, its MPs will still have a conscience vote rather than a binding one.
Deputy leader Tanya Plibersek, whose Left faction wanted the binding vote, said she was “delighted” to second the compromise resolution.
“The current parliament has the numbers to pass marriage equality and should be allowed to,” she told delegates.
“I still hope we can have marriage equality by Christmas, but if this parliament doesn’t pass marriage equality, a Shorten Labor government will in its first 100 days.”
Senior Labor frontbencher Penny Wong, who has a same-sex partner, said the decision would end a conscience vote on a matter “that should never have been a conscience vote”.
In an emotional speech, Ms Wong choked back tears as she was given a standing ovation by party delegates.
Recalling a time in 2004 when she was asked to “vote against my own discrimination”, she told the crowd there was “nothing to fear from equality.”
“I hope more of you will join us, but most of all I hope those in the Liberal Party who are truly liberal will join us to end discrimination because there is nothing to fear from equality,” she said.
“I don’t think I’ve had a prouder day as a member of the Labor Party and I will be prouder still when we deliver marriage equality in law.
“There are many of us, and I’m one, who would have liked it sooner.”
Liberal frontbencher Peter Dutton said nothing the Labor conference decided would affect how the coalition responded to the same-sex marriage issue.
“We took a position to the last election — we should adhere to that position and we should adopt it going to the next election,” Mr Dutton told Sky News.
The ALP national conference accepted a resolution that federal MPs could have a conscience vote on marriage equality in this current term of Parliament and the next.
This could be triggered by Prime Minister Tony Abbott bringing on a cross-party private members’ bill to change the Marriage Act.
However, if no bill was brought forward this term or the one after, Labor MPs would lose their free vote and be bound to support legislation presented to the Parliament, following the federal election scheduled for late 2019.
However, it is most likely there will be a vote on same-sex legislation in the next four years and Mr Shorten wants it brought on before the election scheduled for late next year. If not, he would introduce his own legislation within 100 days of winning government.
The compromise essentially ensure that if same sex marriage laws were passed Bill Shorten would be able to claim some of the credit.
Marriage equality campaigners believe a free vote for both Coalition and Labor MPs would strengthen the chances of marriage equality changes being accepted.
In a twist, Left faction MPs, many of whom want a bound vote supporting marriage equality in Parliament, were told today they were bound to back the conscience vote provision at the conference.
The Labor conference also agreed to a gender equity proposal endorsed by Mr Shorten for affirmative action producing 50/50 representation in Parliament by2025.
This measure, the marriage equality push and Labor’s promotion of renewable energy, all features of the conference, are expected to be used to depict Prime Minister Tony Abbott as behind the times.
The original marriage equality motion to the conference would have seen the free vote survive for just the next 12 months until the late 2016 election.
It was changed after Mr Shorten consulted key Left figures, including Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek and Senate Leader Penny Wong, a few hours before the conference vote. He sponsored the motion with Ms Plibersek, who had previously had urged a binding vote for all
MPs.
There is growing momentum for gay marriage following its acceptance in an Irish vote and formal approval by the US Supreme Court. But Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s rejection of the proposal is complicating matters.
Coalition MPs are under instruction to adhere to policy and vote against same sex marriage. This has not prevented two Government MPs co-sponsoring with Labor and independent members a bill to change the law.
However, Mr Abbott has warned Government legislation has priority over private members’ bills, an indication he might not allow the cross-party effort to be debated in Parliament.
And he will not permit discussion on a conscience vote within the Coalition until a bill is before Parliament.
Ms Plibersek, the Deputy Opposition Leader, previously has argued all MPs should be bound right now because marriage equality is already part of the ALP platform — official party policy. She does not see it as an issue of religious objections. But she believes gay couples are
being discriminated against by the law as it stands.
“While I 100 per cent agree religions should not be forced to marry a same sex couple I also say that it is not fair for the state, for our governments, to discriminate against same sex couples,” Ms Plibersek told news.com.au.
She said: “We have been clear from absolutely day one no church would be forced to solemnise any marriage of any same sex couple. I think that is perfectly proper ...
“But marriage is more than a religious institution. It’s also a civil and legal arrangement.”
Mr Albanese, shadow transport minister, said there should be tolerance granted to those who rejected same sex marriage on religious grounds. And the same should go for MPs.
“You can’t call for tolerance and respect for diversity, in my view, whilst being intolerant,” he told ABC TV.
“I believe very strongly that it should be a conscience vote, that there should be a private member’s bill put before the Parliament this year and we should debate it and then of course, we’ll move on and people will wonder what the fuss was about.
“People love who they love. We should respect that. It will, in my view, strengthen the institution of marriage when more people are able to participate in it.”