Turnbull’s team off marriage plebiscite trail

The Turnbull cabinet will run dead on the same-sex marriage plebiscite for the next three months.

Malcolm Turnbull has told Liberal and Nationals ministers to avoid active campaigning or events outside their electorates, regardless of whether they support a Yes or No vote. Picture: AAP

The Turnbull cabinet will run dead on the same-sex marriage plebiscite for the next three months, with Liberal and Nationals ministers avoiding active campaigning or events outside their electorates, regardless of whether they support a Yes or No vote.

Senior ministers, including Malcolm Turnbull, will talk about their position on same-sex marriage, respond to media questions and encourage people to vote, but the Coalition leadership is intent on not being distracted by the emotional campaign and will concentrate on security, the economy and energy prices.

The Prime Minister said yesterday his “No 1” focus was to “run the government, look after Australians”.

“Same-sex marriage is an ­important issue but there are a lot of other much more important ­issues for me to focus on,” he said. “But I will certainly encourage Australians to vote Yes.”

Bill Shorten, who has committed Labor to participating in the postal-vote process and campaigning for a Yes vote, criticised Mr Turnbull for suggesting he was “too busy” to devote time to the same-sex marriage debate.

“The Prime Minister has abdicated responsibility for change,” Mr Shorten told parliament on Thursday. “He has declared himself too busy to campaign for it.”

All key cabinet ministers, ­including Barnaby Joyce, Julie Bishop, Scott Morrison, Peter Dutton, Christopher Pyne, ­Mathias Cormann, Greg Hunt, Josh ­Frydenberg, Simon Birmingham and Christian Porter, plan to limit any campaigning on same-sex ­marriage to their electorates and allow junior ministers, ­backbenchers and non-­parliamentarians, such as the ­Coalition for Marriage group, to carry the weight of the debate.

Former prime minister John Howard and his former deputy John Anderson will be involved in the campaign and have made strong public statements for the No case. Tony Abbott, who has embarked on a strong campaign against same-sex marriage as a backbencher, wants non-­parliamentarians at the forefront of the campaign through to the close of the ballot on ­November 7.

Yesterday Qantas and left-wing activist group GetUp! joined accommodation giant Airbnb in a “campaign to win a Yes result” if the legal challenges to the same-sex marriage postal vote fail, and the process is “forced” on ­Australians. Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has become the corporate face for same-sex marriage issues and has been vocal in lobbying for change as an openly gay businessman.

Mr Hunt, the Health Minister, yesterday told The Weekend Australian that ministers wanted to concentrate on their duties, such as lowering energy prices, now that the Australian people had an opportunity to vote. Mr Hunt ­intends only to campaign in his Victorian electorate of Flinders.

As the government proceeds with its postal ballot, an 11th-hour decision from the High Court could halt Mr Turnbull’s “people’s vote” on same-sex ­marriage. Chief ­Justice Susan Kiefel yesterday agreed the court would hear a ­constitutional challenge to the vote on September 5 and 6 — less than a week before the due date of September 12 for the ballot to hit mailboxes.

Ms Bishop, the Foreign Minister and deputy Liberal leader, who will only be encouraging people to vote in her Perth electorate of Curtin, said the “whole point of the plebiscite was for the Australian people to have their say”.

The Minister for Immigration, the Treasurer and the Finance Minister, all of whom support traditional marriage and advocated a people’s vote, will have minimal involvement in campaigning.

Mr Dutton, the proponent of the postal vote, will not seek to campaign beyond his Queensland electorate of Dickson, Mr Morrison has told his constituents in Sydney’s Cook that his involvement will be “voting no” and Senator Cormann, who has taken full responsibility for the conduct of the plebiscite, will not campaign.

On Thursday Mr Dutton stated his personal position on the plebiscite and said he would be getting on with being Immigration Minister. “I’ve expressed my comments publicly before in relation to the issue, but now that that matter has been settled, I’m the Immigration Minister and the Minister for Border Protection and I just don’t want to add to that,” he said.

Mr Pyne, the Minister for Defence Industry, said yesterday he supported the Yes case and would urge people to vote Yes but he would not be attending rallies or such events and would concentrate on his Adelaide electorate of Sturt. “I support marriage equality and I want every Australian to feel that they’ve had a part in that decision. That’s what we promised at the election and that’s what we are going to deliver,” Mr Pyne said.

“If the Australian public vote for marriage equality, and I hope that they will and I’ll be voting Yes, and campaigning for a yes vote, then the parliament will introduce legislation,” Mr Pyne said.

Nationals cabinet members, ­including leader Mr Joyce, have decided to refrain from actively campaigning during the postal ballot. The Nationals in parliament have appointed former cabinet minister Matt Canavan as their convener for the No case while Liberal MPs Andrew Hastie and Tim Wilson are preparing for the No and Yes cases respectively.

The formal position of the ­Nationals is to keep the definition of marriage as a union between a man and woman.

Senator Canavan yesterday posted a message on his Facebook page after the announcement of the postal ballot, saying that marriage was about more than love. “It is also about the creation of children,” he said. “That act is something very special. It is so special and important that the unique union of a man and a woman to create children should have its own institution.”

During the week a group of MPs held a preliminary meeting to establish a parliamentary group that would support the No campaign. The group is intended as a cross-party forum that would work towards a defence of the traditional definition of marriage, and invitations have already been extended to Labor MPs as well as those from minor political groupings.

The Turnbull government will still be able to spend taxpayer dollars over the coming weeks despite the pending High Court hearing.

The court will look at whether Senator Cormann was justified in outlaying $122 million on the basis there was an “urgent” and “unforeseen” need for the expenditure.

Marriage equality advocates will attempt to argue the Finance Department sought legal advice on a postal plebiscite as early as March, so the expenditure was not unforeseen and should have been provided for in the May budget.

University of Sydney professor of constitutional law Anne ­Twomey said she believed there were plausible grounds for challenging the postal vote.

Additional reporting: Nicola Berkovic