Turnbull accuses Labor of “petty politics” and trying to take credit for marriage equality
Image: Photo: Twitter via @TurnbullMalcolm
Less than a day after passed for Australia, the major parties are each trying to take credit for the achievement.
Malcolm Turnbull has accused Labor of playing 鈥減etty politics鈥� over marriage equality, according to .
Turnbull this morning said the historic change was 鈥渙ne of the most remarkable moments in our history鈥�, and claimed he was the first Australian prime minister to commit to marriage equality.
Former PM Tony Abbott just weeks ago began on marriage equality, claiming after years of opposition that it was actually his idea.
Turnbull told Channel Seven鈥檚 Sunrise today that Labor 鈥渁ppeared to be taking credit for other people鈥檚 work鈥�.
鈥淭he Labor Party were in government for six years and both PMs Rudd and Gillard said they were opposed to it, and obviously Tony Abbott was,鈥� Mr Turnbull said.
鈥淭he big game changer … was the postal survey. I promised at the last election to give everyone their say. Labor did everything they could to stop that happening.
鈥淚t was just plain petty politics.
鈥淭he Labor Party voted for it, which was good, but they did everything possible to stop people having their say.鈥�
LGBTI couples can lodge intentions to wed from tomorrow, meaning the first weddings under the new law can take place from January 9.
Couples whose overseas marriages were not previously valid in Australia will have their unions recognised from today.
Labour played a contributing part to getting marriage equality legislated. All the LNP did was procrastinate, allow hateful speech to occur and act like a pack of spoilt religious zealots.
Turnbull is just playing spin doctor on this issue. The Labor party have done much more for us than his party ever has. He is trying to say Labor tried to stand in the way but really they were defending our rights in trying to prevent the hateful postal vote. Turnbull is just pissing me off more and more on this issue.
As for Abbott he needs to be expelled from politics altogether. To think he is being paid to openly and arrogantly ignore the will of his constituents is just mind blowing.
Disgraceful effort from Turbull. Completely ignores history and reality. Let’s compare and contrast:
Labor brought in a conscience vote for its MP’s at the end of 2011, six years ago, even though PM Gillard just wanted to leave the issue alone. As recently as a month ago Malcolm Turnbull was declaring that unless 50% plus 1 returned a Yes result in the survey the issue would not progress in this Parliament because the Liberals would continue to nobble their pro-marriage-equality MPs and Senators into not voting their conscience.
Labor leader Bill Shorten did state in a thought bubble to a Christian group that he was open to a plebiscite in 2013, then he met with dozens of gay Australians and changed his mind on that issue well before the Libs made it their election policy out of concern about what a No campaign would look like. Turnbull and the Libs pushed ahead despite fully knowing what a No campaign would look like (many of them were driving the No campaign).
Labor MPs like Tony Burke promised to vote Yes at the time of the last election irrespective of the survey, and in the knowledge their constituents would vote No. Liberal MPs like Tony Abbott said they’d honour the survey but abstained from voting despite their electorate overwhelmingly returning a Yes.
Labor has been far from perfect, but still much much better than the Liberals.
So that’s the comparison. It’s embarrassing for the Liberals. It’s extremely offensive of the PM to declare that opposing the plebiscite or survey was “playing politics” because the opposite was true – the survey was a political excuse to play with the lives of vulnerable young gay Australians.