Gay rights advocates yesterday welcomed the Australian Senate voting down a government plan to hold a nonbinding public vote on recognizing same-sex marriage and called on parliament to legislate for marriage equality.
The Senate voted 33-29 late on Monday against holding the plebiscite Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s conservative government had planned for Feb. 11.
Marriage equality opponents had supported the plebiscite, while most same-sex marriage advocates had opposed it, warning it would spark a divisive public debate.
Parliament should decide the issue during its current three-year term, said Ivan Hinton-Teoh, a spokesman for gay rights group just.equal.
“Clearly in the last 24 hours we’ve had a very significant and historic step in the path to achieving marriage equality, and that’s to get the campaign of marriage equality back on track to where it should’ve been,” Hinton-Teoh told reporters at Parliament House.
Hinton-Teoh said he and other gay rights advocates would work with the Greens Party to draft a marriage equality bill that would attract cross-party support.
“It’s just a matter of time. We know that we’re going to win this,” said Greens Senator Janet Rice, who was married to transgender Nobel Prize-winning climatologist Penny Whetton.
Christopher Pyne, a senior government minister who supports same-sex marriage, said the government would not make a quick decision on how to proceed now that the plebiscite, estimated to cost A$170 million (US$130 million), had been scuttled.
Pyne accused opposition Labor Party leader Bill Shorten, who supports same-sex marriage, of refusing to support the plebiscite for political advantage.
“He couldn’t care less about same-sex marriage, and he doesn’t care less about the many couples around Australia who’d like to have the same legal status as my wife and I enjoy,” Pyne said. “The sensible thing to do is let the dust settle on this issue and get on with the rest of our agenda.”
Turnbull’s predecessor, same-sex marriage opponent Tony Abbott, decided on the plebiscite to avoid division within the conservative government’s ranks.
Turnbull, who supports marriage equality, agreed to hold the plebiscite in return for the most conservative elements of his party supporting his successful challenge to Abbott’s leadership a year ago.
Shelley Argent, spokeswoman for PFLAG Australia which represents parents of gay children, said the plebiscite had been designed to fail.
“The plebiscite if it had gone ahead would have been devastating. There was nothing positive about it,” she said.
The public vote would have carried no legal weight and lawmakers would still have had to change the law in parliament.
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