Same-sex marriage: Abbott pledges to respect Warringah’s vote

Tony Abbott said he would ‘not frustrate the will’ of his Sydney electorate, which voted overwhelming for gay marriage.

Yes voters Rachael Hayes and partner Dom Ellis with dog Billie in Manly yesterday. Picture: John Feder

Tony Abbott said he would “not frustrate the will of the public” in his Sydney electorate of Warringah, where an overwhelming 75 per cent of voters cast their ballots in favour of gay marriage.

While stopping short of saying he would vote for a bill legalising same-sex marriage, Mr Abbott said he “intends to facilitate” one, while insisting it must have protections for freedom of religion, conscience, and parental choice.

Mr Abbott told Sydney radio station 2GB that while he had strongly ­opposed same-sex marriage, he had initiated the idea of putting the vote to the people.

“This whole idea of a plebiscite was mine, originally,” Mr Abbott said. “I think the result now should be respected — respected by the community, respected by the parliament.”

Mr Abbott hinted that he would retain the right to at least abstain on a parliamentary vote if the bill proposed by Liberal senator Dean Smith is not hardened with what he described as “a more general protection of freedom of conscience and freedom of ­religion”.

“I think it’s important to give this bill some tweaks,” he said.

When pressed on whether he would vote for a same-sex marriage bill or not, Mr Abbott said: “I am not going to vote against this, I am not going to frustrate the will of the public.”

Mr Abbott congratulated the Yes campaign, including his gay sister Christine Forster, and said he would now look forward to ­attending her wedding to Virginia Edwards.

“This is a great day for everyone who has been campaigning on this for a decade, and I am certainly not going to rain on her parade,” Mr Abbott said.

Warringah on Sydney’s northern beaches is safe Liberal, but it produced one of the strongest Yes votes in the country, with three in four of his constituents marking their ballot that way.

Most constituents spoken to yesterday in the beachside suburb of Manly made it clear they ­expected Mr Abbott to cast his parliamentary vote in support of a same-sex marriage bill.

“If he doesn’t, then he needs to step down,” said Warringah constituent Alan Main, a banking technology recruitment consultant. “Manly is a very international, cosmopolitan city, and clearly Tony Abbott has no connection with these people at all.’’

Couple Rachael Hayes, a filmmaker, and Dom Ellis, a social media officer with Tabcorp, both 22, said all members of their young share house had voted Yes.

Referring to dog Billie, who was in tow, Ms Hayes said: “She would have voted Yes as well if she could have.”

Ms Hayes called on Mr Abbott, as her local member, to support a same-sex marriage bill, saying “he’s elected to represent us as an electorate”.

Another young Warringah voter, James McCarthy, 19, said he had voted Yes because barring same-sex marriage was “like telling gay people they couldn’t get a driver’s licence”.

Retired librarian Alan Bryan voted No, saying he believed ­“marriage is between a man and a woman, it always has been” and “it’s unnatural for the same sex to marry”.

But Mr Bryan, 68, who voted independent in Warringah at the last election, said Mr Abbott’s support for traditional marriage would not sway him to vote for him at the next.

“He’d like to turn the wheel back to the 19th century when ­Britannia ruled the waves,” Mr Bryan said.