Australia’s
conservative government has refused to allow its federal politicians to
have a free conscience vote on whether to allow gay marriage.
Prime
Minister Tony Abbott instead forced his ruling coalition colleagues to
follow his party line that marriage should be allowed only between a man
and a woman.
Abbott said
that Australians would get a chance to vote in a plebiscite on the issue
if they re-elected his government next year in a move described by his
opponents as a stalling tactic that has all but doomed legislation
introduced by the opposition Labor party to allow same-sex unions.
“The only
way to successfully and satisfactorily settle this matter, given that it
is so personal and given that so many people have strong feelings on
either side of this – the only way to settle it with the least rancour,
if you like, is to ask the people to make a choice,” Abbott said at a
press conference on Wednesday.
“That means
that going into the next election, you’ll have the Labor Party which
wants it to go to a parliamentary vote and you’ve got the coalition that
wants it to go to a people’s vote,” he said.
After Ireland voted in favour of same-sex unions in May, Abbott had said any decision would be made by the parliament.
The
Australian Marriage Equality organisation immediately called for the
plebiscite to be held at the next federal election “to give the next
government a mandate to enact marriage equality”.
“Tony Abbott
can gag his party room, but he can’t gag the Australian people who will
vote strongly in favour of marriage equality at a plebiscite,” the
organisation’s national director Rodney Croome said.
A poll last year found that those in favour of equal rights had reached a record high of 72 percent.
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