目前同性婚姻对大的障碍就在与Tony Abbott禁止LNP党员自由投票表决

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Marriage equality advocates believe the reform would pass if the Coalition had a conscience vote.

The claim comes as Liberal front-bencher, Malcolm Turnbull, re-iterated his in-principle support for equality but declared it would not pass even if he and other Coalition members were allowed a conscience vote.

Australian Marriage Equality national convener, Alex Greenwich said,

“If there was a Coalition conscience vote, more Coalition MPs would be seeking out the views of their constituents, seriously considering the case for reform, and generally opening their hearts and minds to the need for change”.

“We implore Mr Abbott to abide by Coalition tradition and allow a conscience vote on a reform that has majority support across the Australian community.”

“Rather than breaking a Coalition tradition and forcing his members to vote as a collective, Mr Abbott should allow Liberals to vote according to their own conscience and the views of their electorate” Mr Greenwich said.

Today in Parliament Mr Turnbull said: “Were a free vote to be permitted, I could support legislation that would recognise same-sex couples as married.”

Mr Turnbull went on to say he would support civil unions, despite his own polling showing most people in his electorate oppose them, and despite Tony Abbott ruling them out as an option both at the last election and more recently.

Mr Greenwich said it will be hypocritical of Coalition MPs like Mr Turnbull to be allowed to vote for civil unions and not for marriage equality.

“Either MPs like Malcolm Turnbull are allowed a conscience vote on both marriage equality and civil unions or neither.”

“For Mr Turnbull to be allowed to vote to entrench discrimination through a civil union scheme but prohibited from voting for full equality through an amendment to the Marriage Act is an insult to the majority of Australians who support marriage equality.”

Mr Greenwich said civil unions are a second-class form of recognition which have proven to be ‘a failed experiment‘ in countries like New Zealand and the UK which are now moving towards marriage equality instead.

For more information contact Alex Greenwich on 0421 316 335