Gay marriage: people pick plebiscite over pollies

West Australian Liberal senator Dean Smith speaks to Perth’s The Sunday Times this week about his upcoming gay marriage bill:

We should allow everyone the right to vote according to their own conscience.

Smith should catch up on a very interesting Newspoll in yesterday’s The Australian:

A new push within Coalition ranks to hold a free vote in parliament on same-sex marriage by the end of the year has been dealt a blow by a special Newspoll showing Australian voters have swung in behind a national plebiscite.

Smith in The Sunday Times:

I’m of the view that the plebiscite lacks community support.

Has Smith chatted with many of his constituents lately? The Australian, yesterday:

46 per cent of voters prefer a plebiscite while 39 per cent want politicians to decide the outcome ...

Smith must be one of the reasons Menzies didn’t call the Liberals a “conservative party”. Malcolm Turnbull, speaking in London on Monday:

In 1944, Menzies went to great pains not to call his new centre-right party a conservative party ...

And look who was first to back up the PM’s “we’re not conservatives” line ... Foreign Minister Julie Bishop speaks in Croatia, yesterday:

... it very elegantly articulates our values as the Liberal Party ...

Remember, Bishop is one of the main proponents of the plebiscite. The Sydney Morning Herald, August 15, 2015:

Instead she supported putting the issue to the public to decide after the next election ... Speaking the next day, Queensland MP Andrew Laming, who strongly backed a free vote, said Bishop’s argument was decisive.

And some pundits think she’s the next PM if Turnbull falls ... Graham Richardson in The Australian, July 3:

Bishop has been a terrific Foreign Minister and should not be written off for the main job.

She’s been clear from the beginning. Bishop on Twitter, August 12, 2015:

It’s my view the Australian people should have a direct say on this issue.

The government is offering a plebiscite. Bishop on the ABC’s Lateline, June 28 last year:

What we have said is we will have a plebiscite so everybody in Australia can have their say, and I support that and I think it is a good idea.

Or nothing. Bishop on the ABC’s 7.30, September 14 last year:

We took the idea of a plebiscite ... to the last election. It was fundamental to our policies.

So if Bishop becomes PM in the near future, she’s even more tied to the people’s vote than Turnbull. The Australian, yesterday:

While 47 per cent of Coalition voters backed a plebiscite and 44 per cent backed a parliamentary vote in the Newspoll survey last September, this changed to 54 per cent and 33 per cent respectively in the poll conducted from Thursday to Sunday.

Good luck to a future prime minister Bishop ... Peter van Onselen in The Weekend Australian, May 22:

Julie Bishop is the person to step into the prime ministership. It would help address the Coalition’s gender imbalance and provide the party with its first female PM ... The key to such a scenario is Turnbull going willingly ...