Conservatives to tackle PM on same-sex rights

Malcolm Turnbull is facing demands from conservative Coalition MPs to provide acceptable religious protections.

Malcolm Turnbull at the ASEAN summit in Manila. Picture: AP

Malcolm Turnbull is facing ­demands from conservative ­Coalition MPs and the No campaign to provide ­acceptable ­religious and freedom-of-speech protections or be punished for supporting a same-sex marriage bill backed by Labor and the Greens.

Senior conservative ministers and MPs yesterday told The Australian that the government must support strict protections outlined in a rival bill to Liberal MP Dean Smith’s, or face the prospect of an electoral and partyroom backlash.

Cabinet minister Matt Canavan and Turnbull ministers Zed Seselja, Angus Taylor and Michael Sukkar, as well as former prime minister Tony Abbott, have issued effective support for a bill put forward by Victorian senator James Paterson.

The result of the government’s postal survey will be released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics tomorrow at 10am.

“I don’t believe the Smith bill adequately protects human rights,” Senator Canavan told The Australian.

“Its protections are limited to priests and, in limited circumstances, businesses owned by ­religious institutes. The right to freedom of belief is held by every Australian, not just those directly involved in church activities.”

The Australian can reveal polling undertaken by the Coalition for Marriage last week in Wentworth and Dickson — the conservative seats of Mr Turnbull and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton — has the government experiencing swings against it.

Coalition for Marriage spokesman Lyle Shelton said there were millions of Australians waiting to see if the government delivered to its “core constituency” by protecting religious freedoms.

Mr Shelton said Mr Turnbull — who recorded a 5 per cent swing against him since the last election according to the Coalition for Marriage polling — should not be publicly supporting a bill that had been endorsed by Labor and the Greens.

In the marginal Queensland seat of Dickson, Mr Dutton — one of the architects of the same-sex-marriage survey — trails Labor by 51 to 49 per cent.

The polling reveals 83 per cent of people in Wentworth — which includes a high concentration of voters of the Jewish faith — viewed protecting religious freedoms as “very ­important”. Mr Turnbull, who ­returns from a tour of Asia in time for the same-sex-marriage postal-survey results being released ­tomorrow — yesterday described Senator Smith’s private member’s bill as a “good bill to start with”. In response to the rival bill put by Senator Paterson, the Prime Minister indicated he expected there would be amendments.

“In a sense, in a situation like this when a bill is presented, it’s like the first draft, and so that gets put up, and there’ll no doubt be plenty of amendments, debated no doubt for hours on end, and at the end of it they’ll come to a conclusion on an amended bill,” he said.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, who has responsibility for the $122 million postal survey, said the issue of which private member’s bill was advanced or the ­inclusion of any amendments was “a matter for the parliament”.

“There won’t be a government position or a partyroom position on a bill to change the law to allow same-sex couples to marry,” he said.

Liberal MP Trent Zimmerman, a same-sex-marriage advocate, said last night he was disappointed with the proposition in the Paterson bill that “anti-discrimination laws would be so significantly wound back”.

“This bill gives with one hand and takes back with the other,” Mr Zimmerman said. “To say people should have the right to a conscientious objection but only when it is when they want to discriminate against gay and lesbian couples is illogical, deeply inconsistent and wrong.”

Education Minister Simon Birmingham, a leading Liberal moderate, said parliament should vote on Senator Smith’s bill.

Mr Abbott warned that the Prime Minister would need to ­advocate strongly for greater protections if the Yes campaign was successful. Writing in The Australian today, Mr Abbott says: “Both Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull will need to do much more to protect freedom of conscience and freedom of religion than is the case with Dean Smith’s private member’s bill.’’

Mr Abbott points out that Mr Turnbull said less than two months ago that he wanted to “reassure Australians that as strongly as I believe in the right of same-sex couples to marry, even more strongly … do I believe in religious freedom”.

Mr Shelton, who runs the Australian Christian Lobby, said “the idea put forward by the Prime Minister and senior cabinet ministers that the Labor/Greens-backed Smith bill is a good start is deeply disappointing”.

Mr Sukkar said the Paterson bill clearly outlined more of the protections that Australians would expect in legalising same-sex marriage.

“Some Liberal Party members have said to me that the Smith bill looks more like a Greens/Labor bill being proposed by a Liberal senator,” he said. “The religious freedoms of individuals, parental rights and the conscientious objections of those who don’t wish to take part in a same-sex wedding are fundamental Liberal principles which are not addressed by the Smith bill.”

Senator Seselja said the Paterson bill kept faith with both Yes and No voters and had the “potential to unite the country”, saying it was logical for the partyroom to discuss which bill should be advanced through the parliament.

“I think the Smith bill falls well short and will inevitably lead to division because those who don’t support same-sex marriage will find themselves subject to legal discrimination,” he said. “I think as a courtesy both bills should ­definitely be brought to the partyroom.”

The Yes campaign slammed the Paterson bill yesterday, with spokesman Alex Greenwich saying it would “divide Australians” and entrench discrimination by ­allowing business owners to refuse service to gay couples because of their conscientious beliefs. “Are we really going back to the Australia where people put signs outside their shop that say who they will serve and who they won’t?” he said.

Labor MPs yesterday took aim at Senator Paterson’s bill. Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek said it wasn’t reasonable for opponents of marriage equality to “think that they can draft the marriage equality bill that’s presented to the parliament”.

Bishop Michael Stead, the chair of the Anglican Diocese of ­Sydney’s religious freedom reference group, said the rival bill released by Senator Paterson deserved ­“serious consideration” by the parliament.

“In the case of a Yes victory in the postal survey, the newly drafted private member’s bill deserves the serious consideration of parliament, as it offers several advantages over the Dean Smith bill,” said Bishop Stead, also the Anglican Bishop of South Sydney.