Opposition leader’s remarks suggest the party would block any bill to enable a plebiscite, in the event that it lost the federal election

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Labor would not accept a Coalition “deal” for a marriage equality plebiscite, Bill Shorten has said, in terms that indicate Labor could block the plebiscite.

But a Labor spokesman said the remarks did not commit Labor to block the plebiscite because it had not yet seen the bill and terms for a popular vote.



At the National Press Club on Tuesday, the opposition leader was asked if Labor would support the Coalition’s proposed legislation enabling a plebiscite, in the event that Labor lost the federal election.

Shorten replied: “I take this view about marriage equality. Just because [Malcolm] Turnbull did a deal with the right wing of the Liberal party for an inferior option, why should I have to accept and sign up to Malcolm Turnbull’s grubby deal with the right wing of his party? I’m not going to.”

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Shorten said he did not accept Labor would lose the election, but if it did, “we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it”.

“But in the meantime, I want to say to every person in Australia who supports marriage equality, that we will implement it in the first 100 days.”

He said the proposed taxpayer-funded plebiscite “will definitely give the green light to homophobia, an ugly, hateful attitude. We haven’t given up on winning the election”.

“We’re not going to give up on people who want to see marriage equality dealt with through the parliament.

“The parliament is the national forum in a representative democracy for these decisions.”

Shorten noted that Turnbull had supported a parliamentary vote on same-sex marriage, before taking over from Tony Abbott as prime minister in September.

“[If Turnbull] had his way, if he actually ran his political party, which we know he doesn’t, then what would happen is that he would rather have a vote in parliament,” Shorten said.

“But merely because he can’t convince his party, why do the other 24 million Australians have to sign up to his deal? I won’t. And we won’t.

“We’ll just put the case in the parliament. We’re going to put the case in the election full stop.”

Turnbull confirmed on Friday that Coalition MPs would get a free vote, allowing them to disregard the result of the plebiscite.

On Monday Peta Credlin warned that the Turnbull government had no plan B if the plebiscite-enabling legislation were blocked. The Greens have not ruled out blocking the enabling legislation.

The Greens marriage equality spokesman, Robert Simms, told Guardian Australia: “We want to see a vote in the parliament.”

On Tuesday, Liberal senator Zed Seselja told ABC radio in Canberra he opposed same-sex marriage and would be “very likely” to abstain in the parliamentary vote, even if the plebiscite were successful.

Simms said: “We’ve seen the latest farce of Liberal MPs trying to get out of backing marriage equality irrespective of the result of the plebiscite.

“It’s very clear to me that the Liberals are tying themselves up in knots over this and Malcolm Turnbull, if returned, needs to dump this ridiculous plebiscite.”

However, on Tuesday the deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, and treasurer, Scott Morrison, committed to respecting the national result of the plebiscite.