Australia’s Labour Party blocks referendum on same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage will likely be delayed for at least three years in Australia after the opposition Labour party said on Tuesday it would not support a national vote
Same-sex marriage is reportedly supported by 61% of Australians, a Gallop poll in August found
Australia’s opposition Labour Party voted to block legislation to allow a public referendum on same-sex marriage, Bill Shorten, the party’s leader, said on Tuesday, effectively killing the non-binding plebiscite that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had proposed for early next year.
Australia's centre-right coalition government introduced legislation to parliament last month to hold a public vote in February 2017 on whether to legalise same-sex unions.
According to Reuters news agency, the Bill required the support of some opposition lawmakers because Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's Liberal-National coalition has only a one-vote majority in the lower house of parliament and does not have a majority in the upper house.
The Prime Minister had said that the government would provide financing for both the “yes” and “no” campaigns, and that he would abide by the decision of the voters. But the plebiscite would not have been binding, and there was no guarantee that Turnbull’s colleagues would have supported the outcome.
Same-sex marriage is reportedly supported by 61% of Australians, a Gallop poll in August found, and Turnbull's inability to deliver the legislation could seemingly damage his support.
Several independent MPs had already ruled out supporting the national plebiscite on same-sex marriage. The unanimous rejection by the centre-left Labour party, which wants same-sex marriages legalised by parliament, ended any hope the plebiscite Bill could pass.
“A plebiscite is the wrong path to achieve marriage equality,” Labour leader Bill Shorten said at a news conference after the caucus. “The plebiscite would cause harm to gay and lesbian people — particularly, but not exclusively, to young people. Why should gay Australians be subjected to a different law-making process than any other Australians?"
"Why should a couple in a committed relationship have to knock on the doors of 15 million of their fellow Australians and see if they agree with it? The easiest way is the way which this parliament has done for a hundred years - legislate," he added.
Turnbull has said that, should the legislation proposing a national vote be rejected, the issue of same-sex marriage would not be reintroduced into parliament until after the next election, which is due in or before November 2019.
