Tony Abbott: Liberals ‘honour bound’ to stick with gay marriage plebiscite – The Guardian

Tony Abbott acknowledged he said the last parliament was the final time MPs would be bound on same-sex marriage. Photograph: Daniel Munoz/AAP

Tony Abbott has backtracked on a previous statement that Liberal MPs would not be bound on same-sex marriage beyond the last parliament, and he says the government must stick with the plebiscite policy until the next election.

Abbott used a radio interview on Wednesday to insist the Liberal party was honour bound, by pledge of the Australian people, not to try and change this matter in the parliament.

He said the government had made an election commitment. If there is to be any change in this term of parliament its got to be by plebiscite.

The Liberal party will be forced into an internal debate about its stance on marriage equality once parliament resumes after the winter break because the Western Australian senator Dean Smith is bringing forward a private members bill for consideration.

With that development in mind, conservatives have been rallying around the plebiscite ahead of an internal party debate in August.

Liberal supporters of marriage equality expected that conservatives would resuscitate the plebiscite as part of the renewed internal debate, either by insisting that the rejected proposal be brought back into the parliament or pursuing a voluntary postal plebiscite favoured by Peter Dutton.

Abbott joined the fray on Wednesday, saying the party had made a promise at the last election. We said there would be no change to the Marriage Act in this term of parliament without a plebiscite, that this matter would be determined by the whole people.

Pressed on his comments made at the end of the marathon internal Liberal party debate in 2015, where the Coalition adopted the plebiscite policy, Abbott acknowledged that he had said the last parliament was the final time MPs would be bound.

But he said the government had gone into a subsequent election promising the issue would be resolved by a plebiscite. Yes I said in the last term of parliament that that would be the final term of parliament where Liberals MPs are bound on the issue, but we did go into that election promising a process.

Its not fair enough to abandon the process.

Abbott said any other interpretation of his position in 2015 currently doing the rounds was people inside the government meaning supporters of marriage equality being a little bit tricky.

In 2015 Abbott said the following: Ive come to the view I believe this is the party room view that this is the last term in which the Coalition party room can be bound, although we will definitely maintain the current position for the life of this term.

Going into the next election, we will finalise another position.

While conservatives will want the plebiscite to play a central role in resolving the renewed debate triggered by the Smith bill, bringing back the plebiscite could prove a risky proposition on certain scenarios.

Last time the parliament considered the issue, Smith was the only Liberal MP who broke ranks and voted against the plebiscite proposal.

It is unclear whether Smith would be the only break away vote in the event the plebiscite returned for fresh parliamentary consideration. It is possible that some other Liberal supporters of marriage equality could join the public opposition to the proposal.

Smith, and the longtime marriage equality campaigner Warren Entsch, have both publicly argued this week against the Dutton proposal a postal plebiscite.

Entsch said at the start of the week: The fact that a plebiscite of any form, whether it be postal or otherwise, is not binding I think really puts the final nail in the coffin in relation to any concept of a plebiscite and thats not going to change with a ... postal plebiscite.

Smith said plebiscites were the radical way of resolving policy issues in the Australian democratic practice.

He said he opposed them as a traditional conservative.

More than that, postal plebiscites, national plebiscites are corrosive, corrosive to our parliamentary democracy.

See the original post here:

Tony Abbott: Liberals 'honour bound' to stick with gay marriage plebiscite - The Guardian