Mixed messages on marriage free vote?
Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has extinguished growing speculation of same-sex marriage laws passing in the next Parliament if elected in September.
He told Fairfax Media at the weekend he did not anticipate 鈥渕uch enthusiasm鈥� to revisit the issue after the September 14 election.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think anyone should expect that this is necessarily going to come up in the next parliament,鈥� he said.
鈥淣ow, an incoming Coalition government is going to have a lot on its plate, so I can鈥檛 see much enthusiasm for having another go at this from the Coalition. That鈥檚 not to say that others might have a go at it.鈥�
He said the most recent vote on the issue back in September last year had been 鈥渇airly decisive鈥�, adding that he believed only a dozen Coalition at most would have voted for change.
鈥淪o it still would have been pretty decisively beaten, regardless of the fact that we didn鈥檛 have a free vote.鈥�
It follows comments from Abbott last month at a community forum in Geelong where he argued that same-sex marriage was far from inevitable and likened it to the unsuccessful campaign to make Australia a republic in the 1990s.
鈥淚s gay marriage inevitable? Well, look, if you go back a decade or so people thought that the republic was inevitable and yet I don鈥檛 believe it is inevitable, certainly not any time soon,鈥� he said.
However, during that same week he told reporters in Melbourne that the issue of a conscience vote was ultimately up to the party room despite his own opposition to it.
鈥淥ur position, my position, going into the next election, is that what our policy is … will be a matter for the post-election party room,鈥� he said.
Senior Liberal frontbencher Christopher Pyne also told the Nine Network that week they didn鈥檛 have a clear policy on a conscience vote.
鈥淭he party room will get to decide that.鈥�
鈥淲e might well end up with some recognition of same-sex couples.鈥�
Last week, Coaltion frontbencher Simon Birmingham, who has expressed support for same-sex marriage, told The Australian newspaper he and other Liberal MPs strongly believed the partyroom would join them in the push for a free vote.
Even MPs who oppose same-sex marriage, such as frontbencher Barnaby Joyce and openly gay senator Dean Smith, have called for a conscience vote.
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