MEDIA RELEASE
Member for Northern Metropolitan and Leader of the Australian Sex Party, Fiona Patten MP, has welcomed the rejection of legislation for a plebiscite on marriage equality and has again urged a move to a parliamentary vote as soon as possible.
“The federal senate has seen common sense and voted down what would have been a very expensive and socially damaging national poll on the issue of marriage equality,” Ms Patten said. “Prime Minister Turnbull and Attorney General Brandis should now do what they should have done in the first place and present legislation to the floor of parliament for debate.”
In August, once the election result was clear, Ms Patten wrote to the Prime Minister and urged him to ditch plans for the plebiscite citing the cost and hate-filled public debate that would have been sure to follow. Amendment of the marriage act to allow for same-sex marriage has been a key policy plank of the Australian Sex Party since its inception.
“The fact we are not having a plebiscite is actually step forward in this debate,” she said. “We all know that the Prime Minister never wanted a plebiscite anyway. In fact I imagine he is secretly pleased that Australia’s most expensive single-issue survey has been voted down in the senate. This was always just a stalling tactic by former Prime Minster Tony Abbott and the religious-right of the Liberal-National Party to ensure that marriage equality never became a reality in this country.
“Well now Tony isn’t the PM and the plebiscite is dead, so Prime Minister Turnbull has been unshackled of his predecessors past deals and can now move forward with what he really believes in – that is legislation to amend the marriage act to allow for all Australian couples to marry.
“The Prime Minister can now kill two birds with one stone,” Ms Patten said. “He can do what he knows is the best thing for the country – and he can finally stand up for something he genuinely knows is the right thing to do.
“Since his elevation to the highest office in the land the whole country has been waiting for the Prime Minister to show his true colours – in this instance rainbow ones. It’s now time to let ‘Malcolm be Malcolm’”.
