Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek in question time on Thursday.
Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek in question time on Thursday. Labor’s leader and deputy leader will co-sponsor a same-sex marriage bill in parliament on Monday. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek in question time on Thursday. Labor’s leader and deputy leader will co-sponsor a same-sex marriage bill in parliament on Monday. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Labor MPs offer to back cross-party approach on same-sex marriage

This article is more than 8 years old

If attempt to pass bill on Monday fails, several Labor MPs have indicated they will support cross-party attempts led by the Coalition’s Warren Entsch

Several Labor MPs have offered to co-sponsor a cross-party bill for same-sex marriage, a prospect that Coalition supporters have said provides the greatest hope for such a law to pass the Australian parliament.

Labor MP Graham Perrett revealed on Thursday he was prepared to join a cross-party effort led by Liberal MP Warren Entsch if the bill proposed by the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, does not succeed.

Shorten and his deputy, Tanya Plibersek, plan to introduce a marriage equality bill to parliament on Monday, but the prime minister, Tony Abbott, has said any such decision “ought to be owned by the parliament and not by any particular party”.

Entsch, who has also emphasised the importance of a cross-party approach, said he was confident supporters would be in a position to propose a bill co-sponsored by Coalition, Labor, Greens and independent MPs by August.

He said four or five Labor MPs had spoken to him offering their support, including Perrett, the MP for Moreton in Brisbane.

Entsch said he had worked on this issue with Perrett “for a long time”, noting that the Labor MP was one of the co-chairs of the LGBTI parliamentary friendship group. Referring to potential co-sponsors for a same-sex marriage bill, he said: “There are others.”

Perrett told Fairfax Media he would like to see the parliament pass Shorten and Plibersek’s bill, but was prepared to “see how that goes” and work with Entsch to co-sponsor a compromise bill if that effort failed.

“It’s certainly time, if the conservative Poms and Kiwis, and now the Irish have beaten us to it, it’s starting to get embarrassing,” Perrett told Fairfax Media.

“I’m proud of Tanya and Bill for bringing it on but most importantly we have to get this done.”

However, Perrett later sought to distance himself from the Fairfax story and attempted to put the focus back on his leader’s legislation.

Perrett tweeted: “just 2 B clear I want @billshortenmp’s marriage equality bill 2 succeed on Mon there’s no plan B. Abbott must give Libs free vote”

Liberal supporters of same-sex marriage are hopeful of winning party room support for a free vote on the issue. Labor MPs will be allowed to vote in line with their conscience but the Coalition maintains a party position of opposing same-sex marriage.

Entsch said he had been “working collaboratively with a lot of people” because cooperation and respect was key to achieving marriage equality.

He said he would continue speaking to colleagues next week “so that we can get together a proposal that we can go back and talk to Tony [Abbott] about it”.

“He [Abbott] has never been a blocker on this,” Entsch said. “He’s got his own opinion on it for his own reasons; I respect that.”

Shorten said he hoped the matter would gain bipartisan support and Labor was open to working with people would also backed the reform.

“It shouldn’t be a Liberal issue or a Labor issue but if Labor hadn’t put it on the agenda, if I and Tanya hadn’t proposed this bill on amending the Marriage Act to support marriage equality, do any of you seriously think we’d be talking about this today? The time has come for Tony Abbott to allow a free vote for members of the Liberal party and the National party,” Shorten said on Thursday.

“Once they allow a free vote I think all things are possible but it is a little cute, I suspect, not of the advocates of marriage equality in the Liberal party but perhaps others, to say that somehow the Labor party raising the matter is a bad thing. Does anyone think that we would be talking about it this week if we didn’t show the leadership which we are displaying?”

Earlier this week, Shorten announced his plan to bring on a bill for marriage equality, seeking to tap into momentum from Ireland’s vote last week to become the latest country to approve the change.

Entsch said he had been annoyed by Shorten’s political positioning on the issue: “This is not about Bill. It is not about Warren. It is not about any of us.”

“It is about collectively bringing equity to a very large percentage of Australians and recognition for the families to know that their family members may be of a different sexual orientation are treated fairly in society.

“I’ve had great responses [from Labor MPs] and with the Greens and with some of the independents and with my colleagues. This is where we’ve always needed to go with this.”

The social services minister, Scott Morrison, declined to say on Thursday whether he supported a free vote within the Coalition, despite suggesting on Monday that marriage was “a matter of conscience for me and I respect the conscience of other members”.

Morrison, who opposes same-sex marriage, said: “What you can take from that is that I respect the views of other people on this very sensitive issue. I have my view, it hasn’t changed, it’s not about to change. I am not pushing my view on others.”

Comments (…)

Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion

Most viewed

Most viewed