Marriage equality advocate condemns ‘rigged’ postal plebiscite
Image: Rodney Croome (PHOTO: Ann-Marie Calilhanna; Star Observer)
MARRIAGE equality advocate and just.equal spokesperson Rodney Croome has condemned the proposed postal plebiscite as 鈥渋nherently rigged鈥�.
The latest news indicates a growing push from opponents of marriage equality in the Turnbull government for a postal plebiscite on the issue.
鈥淭here will be no parliamentary oversight of the question, the campaigns for and against the proposition, or the voting procedure,鈥� Croome said.
鈥淎 non-compulsory vote also means the 30 per cent of the electorate who are soft supporters of marriage equality are much less likely to vote.
鈥淎nother problem is that a vote run entirely through the post could favour older voters and disenfranchise younger ones, further skewing the results against marriage equality.
鈥淭he current plebiscite proposal wouldn鈥檛 just be easy to rig, it would be inherently rigged.鈥�
Croome said the LGBTI community has already overwhelmingly rejected a plebiscite.
鈥淭his concern ran so deep 85 per cent of LGBTI Australians said they would rather wait for marriage equality than achieve it through a plebiscite,鈥� he said.
鈥淭he broader community also said no to a plebiscite because of concern about the cost and the fact politicians could ignore the result.
鈥淧lebiscite Mark II may reduce the financial cost鈥� but the human cost would remain.鈥�
If it is not compulsory to vote then just what the hell is the point of having this “Postal Plebiscite”? Of course it will give the answer the rednecks, the bigots and homophobes – they exist in all areas of society and within All Political Parties – want and then they will deliberately use the result to tell us that the 74% of the Public whom we are told support Equality – Marriage or any sort of Equality were just a figment of people’s imaginations and all the usual garbage these politicians and their religious mates spout.
Turnbull should refuse to even talk about it.
Turnbull should simply introduce his own Private Member’s Bill or adopt the Principle of Equality for All as Liberal Party Policy and introduce Government Legislation.
A lot would depend on the ALP and we must not forget that there are a whole swathe of rednecks, bigots and homophobes within the ALP too.
Shorten is bleating about it BUT he made no effort to bring on the legislation to alter the Australian Marriage Act during his time in office, did he?
What does the Australian Constitution say about “Equality”? Does it Guarantee this for all citizens? If the answer is “Yes” then surely the High Court of Australia would uphold the Australian Constitution – no matter what our pathetic politicians think, thereby forcing the Federal Government to amend the Marriage Act.