In amidst the brouhaha of the Liberal spill which left Tony Abbott not even a One Term Tony, and Malcolm Turnbull the triumphant, it was easy to miss the Senate report into a plebiscite.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull now finds himself in the strange position of having to implement a policy he publicly disagrees with. As the centrist within his party and the MP for Wentworth – probably the gayest electorate in Australia – Turnbull is on record as supporting marriage equality. He was among the 30 LNP parliamentarians who voted in support of a free conscience vote when the issue was clumsily put to the partyroom by Abbott last month, and was one of the members of Cabinet who revolted when they realised Abbott had screwed them by forcing the Liberals and Nationals to vote on the issue as one.
There’s even rumours that the mishandling of the marriage issue – first publicly declaring the issue was properly a matter for federal parliament and not a popular vote, and saying he would consider a crossbench bill, while privately promising social conservative backers that he would kybosh the issue, then waiting days to declare a plebiscite as the Coalition’s policy moving forward – was what prompted Turnbull and his co-conspirators to oust Abbott, declaring: “This guy has got to go.”
However, having lost the partyroom debate over a conscience vote, Turnbull has now had to make Faustian bargains of his own to get his hands on Canberra’s own iron throne.
In this instance, one of the concessions the social conservatives and Nationals demanded was that Turnbull sign an agreement committing not to backflip on several key policy issues – including a free vote for marriage equality, or an emissions trading scheme.
So, for now at least, Turnbull is stuck with the Liberal policy that a plebiscite on same sex marriage will be put to the public after the next election.
Now while I don’t inherently object to the idea of a popular vote on the issue, even the Senate committee chair who proposed the plebiscite bill has now changed his mind on the issue. The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee inquiry into a plebiscite heard from both marriage equality advocates and opponents, and expected at least one side would support the idea of a popular vote. However, independent Senator Glenn Lazarus (yes, the former rugby league player known as the Brick with Eyes and ex-Palmer United MP) admitted that after canvassing the views of both sides of the debate that he even had changed his tune, admitting that no one apparently wants a popular vote, which will invariably bring out the worst bigots in the debate and encouraging smear campaigns against same sex families and the LGBTIQ community.
“Quite clearly people that are for and against marriage equality would rather have the Parliament decide the outcome rather than going to a plebiscite,” he said.
Since a plebiscite will require the support of the Senate, Turnbull might just have won a reprieve from his own party’s platform.
Oh and in other news, a Vatican priest came out. The 42-year-old Polish Catholic Krzysztof Charamsa declared he is gay and in a relationship, saying “Every homosexual is a son of God.” “Wake up, Church, stop persecuting the innocents… It’s time for the Church to open its eyes about gay Catholics.” Amen to that.
