Well, that was quick: less than 24 hours after laying out its plan to return the bill for a plebiscite on marriage equality to the Senate, the government was defeated in its effort to get the bill back into that chamber.
So, next stop, a postal plebiscite to be conducted, in order to avoid legal challenge, by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The government got short shrift in the Senate this morning. It tried to sneak the bill back onto the notice paper rather than reintroduce it — sort of like pretending that the bill wasn’t actually defeated last year. But the Senate wouldn’t even cop that, so after some fairly limited debate, including a ripsnorter of speech by Penny Wong, the vote was tied, meaning defeat.
The agency responsible for the 2016 census debacle, the agency where heads, Malcolm Turnbull once promised, “would roll” after the colossal stuff-up of August last year (none ever did), the agency that has been under fire for continuing problems with the quality of its employment data, will now be responsible for conducting a giant opinion poll using the postal system because the Liberal party room has too many homophobes and too many opponents of Malcolm Turnbull to live up to its name.
It would be hilarious, with a kind of comic touch of genius added by involving the Australian Bureau of Statistics, except, as Penny Wong pointed out, there’s nothing but misery ahead for same-sex couples and especially same-sex parents. This plebiscite isn’t just a waste of time and money; it will hurt people.
The lie — a lie repeatedly, consistently, regularly debunked — that will be central to the campaign for a “no” vote will be that same-sex marriage equals child abuse, that same-sex parents (like Wong) harm their children, that their kids are a “stolen generation”, to use the disgusting language of the head of the Australian Christian Lobby, Lyle Shelton. This smear will be peddled by Shelton and his ilk, and their parliamentary fellow travellers like Eric Abetz and Tony Abbott, in the face of all evidence, evidence just a google away for anyone with an open mind.
Yesterday the Prime Minister rejected such concerns and declared that the whole affair would involve “respectful discussion”. For middle-aged heterosexual people, maybe it will be respectful. It will be anything but for the people whose basic rights we’re being asked to approve.
Pay not attention to Lyle. I’m pretty sure he’s only that awful because he’s anti-gay for pay. He’d be out of a job if marriage equality ever passed.
I think he’s gay
Methinks he doth protest too much.
Junk mail from a junk government led by a junkster.
I’ve never been convinced by the argument that a democracy shouldn’t have debate and shutting it down would only lead to festering resentment amongst the troglodytes for years. Ireland had a very successfully and, I believe, healing plebiscite on same-sex marriage (as marriage was in the constitution a plebiscite was required).
Equally, though, I think there are no arguments for a plebiscite and many against, the most important being that same-sex marriage was only banned in 2004 with “Honest John’s” lightning amendments to the Marriage act.
Sadly, and utterly predictably, the Mad Monk has got straight into muddying the waters, showing what a grub he is: –
“And I say to you if you don’t like same-sex marriage, vote no. If you’re worried about religious freedom and freedom of speech, vote no, and if you don’t like political correctness, vote no because voting no will help to stop political correctness in its tracks.”
Heard his (lesbian) sister come out in response – hope she gets as much airtime as her irrelevant dinosaur of a brother in the upcoming debate.
On an unrelated matter. Bernard, for those who in one way or another avoided the Census, will participating in this vote have any ramifications? Will it help them identity non-participants and enable them to be targeted more accurately next time?
Thanks Bob, so Abbott had already gone off the reservation, equating giving marriage equality with suppressing his freedom of speech, his religious freedom, political correctness gone mad.
What a low-life.
I disappoint myself that I continue to be shocked by him. It should be obvious that he knows no bounds.
I’ll be shocked when he does something decent.
“Successful” and “Healing” ?
Everything I’ve read about the Irish referendum indicates that the “No” campaign spread outright lies and subjected the country’s Gay community to hurtful misinformation. Australians love to think of themselves as the champions of the fair go – if that is true, how can anyone argue that a majority should have the power to curtail or expand the rights of a minority?
http://theconversation.com/australia-doesnt-need-a-plebiscite-on-same-sex-marriage-irelands-experience-shows-why-61499
Thanks for that Mark. My understanding was based on that of Irish people – who live in Australia, so may not have caught the nuance of the debate. I’ll read your link and look around further.
No doubt a lot of these postal surveys will be returned with handwritten messages inviting the PM to shove his commitment to the Australian people up his arse.
Eventually the LNP will eat their own manure over this debacle. The fight is already lost, marriage equality is coming whether they like it or not.
I hope that they enjoy their meal when it arrives, because I will enjoy watching them eat it.
Don’t be too sure of the outcome. There are several, apart from Abbott, who will see this NO campaign as career defining – Bernardi, Hanson, Shelton, etc.
The problem for them is the ratbag right surge was stalled by a Mr Trump, and another of their passionate causes, renewable energy targets, may be lost, most likely from business pressure.
And lest we forget, there are also some serious conservative uglies in the advertising industry.
What they will want most of all is complacency, and to just wear away the voice of reason.