The New Civil Rights Movement reports that Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott called a surprise meeting with Members of Parliament, and the group voted against letting MPs vote on same-sex marriage.

Abbott, who is highly opposed to marriage equality, is being accused of “stacking the deck.” He didn’t need to use the conservative MPs to organize the vote. He chose to.

In the past, Abbott has said that same-sex marriage is a “deeply personal … subject on which decent people can differ.”

He suggested people might be allowed to vote on marriage equality “sometime after the 2016 elections.”

72 percent of Australian people support marriage equality.