Leader Richard Di Natale says party will push for changes but not at risk of sinking the draft bill

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, says he will push for changes to the cross-party marriage equality bill drafted by Dean Smith but will “not do anything to jeopardise” it if they are not accepted.

The yes campaign is fending off challenges from left and right, with conservatives preparing their own marriage bill and rival LGBTI advocacy groups pushing the Greens to play hardball in negotiations.

Despite the fact the Greens have not finalised their position, Di Natale’s comments lock the party in to supporting the Smith bill, which is co-signed by four Liberal supporters of marriage equality and supported by Labor, as the consensus option to legislate same-sex marriage.

The results of the marriage law survey will be announced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday but Malcolm Turnbull’s commitment to facilitate an unspecified private member’s bill in the event of a yes vote has unleashed infighting in the government about which bill to use.

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The Just Equal LGBTI advocacy group has launched a survey about legal changes in the Smith bill. The bill entrenches the ability of military chaplains to refuse same-sex weddings but gives senior military officers the ability to conduct them, allows current civil celebrants to convert to become religious celebrants and reject same-sex weddings and replicates exemptions in the Sex Discrimination Act that would allow religious organisations to refuse to provide services.

The survey concludes by asking if “if same-sex marriage depended on these provisions, to what extent would you be willing to wait until marriage equality can be achieved without them?”.

Just Equal has launched a campaign to lobby MPs and senators that there should be “no compromise on equality”.

The Equality Campaign and Australian Marriage Equality fear the campaign is designed to attack the Smith bill which they see as the only practical option to legislate same-sex marriage.

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The bill was drafted by Smith out of recommendations from a cross-party Senate committee inquiry and while it arguably allows differential treatment of same-sex weddings in limited respects, it stops well short of the no campaign’s calls for a broad right to discriminate for private service providers.

On Thursday, Smith said he would move the bill “as soon as practically possible after a yes vote is known”, which suggests the bill could be debated and even pass the Senate by the end of the week.

Long-time marriage equality advocate and Just Equal spokesman Rodney Croome said: “If Australia votes yes, it will be yes for full equality for all loving committed couples, not new exemptions from anti-discrimination laws.

“We haven’t come this far and gone through such a bruising postal survey to see new forms of discrimination entrenched in the Marriage Act in return for the right to marry,” he said.

“No other country passed marriage equality with discriminatory add-ons and Australia shouldn’t either.”

At a press conference on Friday, the Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, said the party “would not support legislation that further entrenches discrimination”.

“Clearly we would like to see those elements of the [Dean Smith] bill that may entrench discrimination amended,” he said. “We’ll wait to see what the final bill looks like before we give a commitment as to how we will vote.”

In later comments to Guardian Australia, Di Natale clarified: “We’ll seek to amend Dean Smith’s bill but we won’t do anything to jeopardise the passage of the bill as it currently stands.”

Australian Marriage Equality co-chairman Alex Greenwich said: “All parties showed great leadership in reaching consensus on what legislation should look like at the beginning of the year.”

“After 15 November it’s time to turn that consensus into action by backing the bill drafted by the five Coalition backbenchers and supported by the ALP.”

Greenwich warned the time for “playing games” with marriage equality was “well and truly over”.

Liberal MP Ian Goodenough has said that at least a dozen MPs support an as-yet unseen conservative same-sex marriage bill reported to include up to 100 amendments to the Smith bill.



Based on their public statements on religious freedom, these include Tony Abbott, Matt Canavan, Michael Sukkar, Zed Seselja, Andrew Hastie, Eric Abetz and Kevin Andrews.

Guardian Australia understands the conservative bill is being drafted by external lawyers rather than the office of parliamentary counsel.

Conservative demands so far have included: a “no detriment” clause, which LGBTI advocates argue is code for dismantling discrimination law; the ability of private service providers to refuse same-sex weddings; the ability of religious schools to teach their own definition of marriage; and guarantees on government funding and the charitable status of religious charities.

On Friday Canavan told Sky News that religious freedoms were “fundamental human rights” and that Australia is “not a tyranny of the majority” – a clear indication that conservatives will not allow a yes vote to stymie their attempts to change laws to allow discrimination against same-sex weddings.

Canavan said the postal survey was “not a referendum on the Dean Smith bill” and it would be up to parliament to decide the form of a bill and amendments.

In response to the education minister, Simon Birmingham, suggesting it was illogical to use conservative opponents’ bill as the starting point to legislate same-sex marriage, Canavan accused him of suggesting that conservatives “don’t deserve to have a say in what a bill says”.