There is a private members bill on marriage equality, co-sponsored by merkins from both sides. Yet Abbott refuses (at this stage) to allow it to be debated in the party room. Surely public sentiment and the world wide groundswell of support suggests that he should put his personal views aside ?
They say that they have more important things to worry about. Surely the coalition can walk and chew gum at the same time ?
There shouldn't be a conscience vote in this term of parliament.
The basis of a conscience vote is that, in essence, some Libs will vote Yes and some Labor will vote No. But who knows which ones they are? I mean each and every one of them.
If this is such an important issue then we should be allowed to have a say in it and I don't mean via opinion polls.
So we either have a plebiscite at the next election or, if that is considered too expensive, put it to each and every candidate how they would vote so that people can be informed when casting their ballot.
I don't care that opinion polls give it a clear majority.
I'd hate to see even one person vote for, say, Labor thinking that they will get a Yes vote in a conscience vote, only to find they are in an electorate where the Labor candidate will vote No and the Lib will vote Yes.
This is nothing to do with gay marriage, really - I just don't like conscience votes that weren't based on issues openly discussed at the previous election.
