Same-sex marriage: Steve Ciobo warns politicians not to ignore vote
Politicians should think very carefully before they “snub their nose” at the Australian people by refusing to implement their viewpoint on same-sex marriage, Liberal minister Steve Ciobo said today, after a conservative senator said he would not be bound by the result of a national plebiscite.
Following a marathon six-hour government party room meeting in Canberra last August, Tony Abbott announced it would be for “the people to decide” whether to repeal the 12-year-old law defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
However Eric Abetz, a former member of Tony Abbott’s cabinet, expressed his view that the plebiscite’s result should not necessarily sway MPs to vote in parliament one way or another.
“Every member of parliament will make up his or her mind after the plebiscite is held. People will take into account the views of the electorate, the views of the nation and their own personal views,” Senator Abetz told Guardian Australia.
“There will be people in the parliament who could not support the outcome of a plebiscite whichever way it went. If the plebiscite came back with a ‘no’ vote on marriage equality, would (pro-marriage equality backbencher) Warren Entsch drop his campaigning on the issue? I think not.”
Mr Ciobo, an opponent of same-sex marriage, cautioned all MPs to “think twice before they snub their nose at the view of the majority of Australians”.
“I think for anybody in politics ... to snub their nose at the viewpoint of the Australian people, which would be clearly expressed in a plebiscite, would be passing strange,” the International Development Minister told Sky News.
“I don’t know which direction it will go in. I don’t know which direction it will go in ... but what I do know is at the end of that process we’ll have a clear point of view.”
Pat O’Neill, the Labor candidate for the Coalition-held federal seat of Brisbane, tweeted: “Does Eric Abetz know Australia is a democracy?”
On August 12, Mr Abbott told parliament that Labor would “want the politicians to decide; this government wants the people to decide”.
“Over there they want the politicians’ choice. Over here, we want the people’s choice, and what could be fairer than leaving this to the people of Australia?”
On the same day, Senator Abetz – who then represented Mr Abbott in the Senate – declined to confirm that the government would hold a plebiscite.
“The Prime Minister made it very clear, as indeed did the party room, that for the term of this government the status quo (that the Coalition opposes any change) should remain. The reason for that is that that was our policy before the last election and we intend to stand by our election commitments. What the Prime Minister has also said is that if that position changes we will take a position to the next election,” he said.
Mark Dreyfus, the opposition legal affairs spokesman, said Senator Abetz had made a “mockery” of the plebiscite and recommitted a Labor government to legislate same-sex marriage.
“This absurd notion makes a complete joke of our democratic process and renders a $160 million national plebiscite totally pointless,” Mr Dreyfus said.
“It’s no coincidence Tony Abbott is currently on his way to the United States to address a group which is virulently against same-sex marriage. The Liberal Party may have a new manager, but the hard-line views of many of its members have not changed.”
