Conscience vote announcement delayed
The Star Observer understands that Prime Minister Julia Gillard has deferred plans to announce her support for a conscience vote on same-sex marriage after being embarrassed by a report in this paper that she would make the announcement this week.
Last week a senior federal ALP source revealed to the Star Observer that Gillard was planning to announce she would allow a conscience vote on same-sex marriage in an effort to short-circuit debate at the ALP National Conference in Sydney in December.
The debate would still occur but the source said Gillard believed that pre-empting the outcome would take the wind out of the sails of any decision made by the conference.
The source said Gillard knew she didn鈥檛 have the votes at conference to prevent marriage equality from being added to the ALP national platform, which would put her at odds with her own party on the issue.
Gillard is still expected to announce her support for a conscience vote on the issue in the near future.
A vote to legalise same-sex marriage would lose if Labor MPs were given a conscience vote as Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has refused to give Coalition MPs a conscience vote on the issue.
[…] published in Star Observer, October 20, […]
So long as Gillard essentially toes the same anti-equality line as Tony Abbott, the critical focus remains squarely on her and not on Abbott’s equally – if not more – offensive opposition to it. Abbott seems to largely get off scot-free in the media for ALL of his repugnant views because expectations of him have been so lowered that the only way is up. Unfortunately this may eventually mean that he will slide into the Prime Ministership by default, which will do the cause of marriage equality (among many others) no favours whatsoever.
It’s something…… and it is more than what Abbott would do !
Bah. This is a cynical move by Gillard, who knows that the Liberal party will all vote against it, as will the Right faction of the Labor party, easily defeating it (despite what polling of the community shows would happen if put to a referendum). She鈥檚 only allowing a conscience vote now because she knows the national Labor conference will vote in favour of marriage equality and that she, the leader, would then be acting expressly against the wishes of both the wider Labor party and those who voted for it.
In other words, it鈥檚 not about doing the right thing, or the thing that those who voted for her want, it鈥檚 about paying lip service to marriage equality and silencing the debate (as if it鈥檚 not a nice diversion from her other woes), while ensuring a politically convenient result for herself (maintaining the status quo).
Gillard can pray to Joe de Bruyn and his Rosary all she likes, but that has not convinced me, or the majority of Australians, that punishing people due to their birth is acceptable. Federal Labor is a complete mess worshiping a Union who advocates intolerance in the name of the Catholic Church, over the Civil Rights of Australians.
I will continue voting Green thanks, a party not screwed up enough to make my birth a punishment.
Julia knows exactly what she is doing by coming out to support a conscious vote … sinking marriage equality for the foreseeable future. How can this Labor Government keep getting it so wrong, it won’t get another term at this rate and she will be remembered as the worst PM ever. Shame Julia Shame!
What do those placards they keep showing on the tv news say?? … “Ditch the B_tch”? Really, we need a Labor leader who can accept equal rights for what they are & wake up to themselves that equality is being rolled out progressively in every other civilised country, yet we have the gate firmly shut, with a deadbolt of the Lib/Labor homophobic 2004 marriage ban.
I’d love to see an inspiring Labor leader take over who the projected 2,000,000 GLBT people in Australia can actually trust to work towards granting full equality and fairness, so we can walk into a govt registry office & get married like any other taxpayer.