Cory Bernardi tells Malcolm Turnbull: stop advocating same-sex marriage or quit frontbench

Updated

Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi has called on former Liberal leader and current Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull to stop publicly advocating gay marriage or quit the ministry.

"If Malcolm Turnbull wants to talk about fringe issues outside party policy, he should resign from the frontbench," Senator Bernardi told the ABC.

"Our longstanding party position is that marriage is between a man and a woman.

"Our frontbenchers need to reflect that in any comments they make.

"When you are a frontbencher there is no room for a personal view."

Senator Bernardi, a protégé of former finance minister Nick Minchin, is a leading conservative figure within the party and resigned last year as Tony Abbott’s Shadow parliamentary secretary over his comments linking same sex-marriage to bestiality.

He first clashed with Mr Turnbull, a leading moderate within the Coalition, in 2009 when Mr Turnbull was Liberal leader and in favour of passing Labor’s emissions trading scheme.

Mr Turnbull lost the leadership to Mr Abbott on the issue.

At the weekend, Mr Turnbull said the Coalition should allow a conscience vote on gay marriage, which he would "certainly" vote for.

The Labor Party has asked Mr Turnbull to co-sponsor a private members bill to legalise same-sex marriage, but the offer was rebuffed because Mr Turnbull is a Cabinet Minister.

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Mr Turnbull says all the countries "culturally close" to Australia - the UK, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand - have already allowed gay marriage.

He argues that it looks like Australia is "out of step" on the issue.

Mr Turnbull's office refused to comment on Senator Bernardi's remarks.

Last Thursday, the High Court in Canberra ruled that only the Federal Parliament has the power to make marriage laws, declaring the ACT's same-sex marriage law invalid.

Mr Turnbull said on Friday he expected a private members bill to be introduced to Parliament proposing a change to the existing law.

"I think it is very likely there will be a conscience vote agreed to by the Coalition party room," he said.

"As to whether that would result in the bill being passed, it's probably a bit early to say because the new Parliament, there's a lot of new members.

"But I think there is a reasonable prospect of a change to the law in this Parliament."

Topics: sexuality, community-and-society, lgbt, government-and-politics, federal-government, australia

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