PM to support amendments to guarantee charities won’t be affected and to allow civil celebrants to refuse to solemnise weddings

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Malcolm Turnbull has revealed he will support at least two amendments to the Senate’s same-sex marriage bill to guarantee that charities will not be affected and to allow civil celebrants to refuse to solemnise weddings.

The prime minister backed the amendments after pressure from conservatives to do more to protect religious freedom despite earlier saying that the cross-party bill, which passed the Senate on Wednesday, “does not impose any restrictions on religious freedoms at all”.

Despite his move, the Senate bill is likely to have the numbers to pass the lower house unamended, with the Liberal MP Warren Entsch and key crossbench MPs confirming to Guardian Australia they would vote down amendments.

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On Thursday a spokesman for the prime minister said he “supports protections for religious freedom, including safeguards for the legal status of charities, as well as provisions that would ensure that marriage celebrants are able to decline to solemnise marriages which they do not wish to solemnise”.

He said the prime minister was “likely” to support measures that “seek to provide greater protections in the legislation, where the legalisation of same-sex marriage necessitates immediate action on those protections” but this would depend on the form of the amendments.

But the spokesman said that “many of the issues of concern for religious groups go beyond the same-sex marriage debate”, which was why Turnbull had established the Ruddock review into religious protections.

The charity amendment was proposed in the Senate by the Liberals David Fawcett and James Paterson and the celebrants amendment was put by the attorney general, George Brandis, but both were defeated.



On Wednesday Brandis called for his amendments to be put again in the House, while Tony Abbott has said he expected amendments because it was “very disappointing” the government had not done more on religious freedom.

At a press conference in Canberra, Turnbull said there would be a free vote in the Coalition on the same-sex marriage bill and any amendments.

Turnbull accused Bill Shorten of being “tricky” by giving Labor members a free vote on the bill “but not a free vote on the amendments”.

“The reason the amendments, as I understand it, hardly any of the amendments got up in the Senate, is because Labor would not allow a free vote on it,” he said.

Labor maintains that its members have a conscience vote on amendments but no one asked to exercise it.

The Greens LGBTI spokeswoman, Janet Rice, said: “Turnbull’s indication that he’ll support rightwing marriage equality amendments in the House of Representatives is a desperate attempt to salvage his internal standing in the Coalition.

“The prime minister needs to remember that Australia voted decisively to remove discrimination from our marriage laws, not to add more.”

Rice said the lower house should “pass the marriage equality bill and to not use this issue as a political football for their personal ideological crusades.

“The Senate voted resoundingly for the Dean Smith bill, which maintains the religious protections in our existing anti-discrimination law.”

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Entsch told Guardian Australia he “absolutely” supported passing the cross-party bill, authored by the Liberal senator Dean Smith, without amendments.



“The reality is it has been dealt with comprehensively in the Senate,” he said. “It has been overwhelmingly supported.”

Entsch said MPs were “entitled to make a contribution” but warned “any attempt to disrupt the process by putting out amendments that compromise the intention [to legislate same-sex marriage] is going to be very fraught for those involved.

“Even if some were to accidentally get up, which I don’t believe they would, it would have to go back to the Senate. It would be seen as disruptive and wouldn’t be tolerated.”

At least 73 MPs want to pass the Senate bill unamended: with Labor, the Greens, the Nick Xenophon Team’s Rebekha Sharkie, Andrew Wilkie and Entsch all promising to do so.

The votes of the cross-party bill’s co-sponsors, Trevor Evans, Trent Zimmerman and Tim Wilson, would give the bill a majority. With Barnaby Joyce and John Alexander fighting byelections and Tony Smith in the chair only 74 votes would be needed for a majority.

Wilson said he would consider every amendment but would subject them to the test of whether they were “consistent with a liberal democracy where everything is legal unless specifically made illegal” and “apply equally and consistently apply to every Australian, or is it just creating special group rights for some?”