In a move calculated to put pressure on the prime minister, Bill Shorten also offers to second a same-sex marriage bill if it is introduced by Malcolm Turnbull

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

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Labor will seek to reintroduce a cross-party same-sex marriage bill for debate in parliament this week, ahead of Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade on Saturday.

Federal leader Bill Shorten announced on Monday his shadow parliamentary secretary Terri Butler would reintroduce the marriage equality bill.

As an alternative, Shorten offered to second a marriage equality bill if one were introduced by Malcolm Turnbull in a move calculated to put pressure on the prime minister, who has stuck by Coalition plans for a plebiscite made by his predecessor Tony Abbott.

Shorten plans to march with the Rainbow Labor float in Saturday’s parade to support marriage equality, making him the first federal leader of one of the two main parties to do so.

“Imagine if at Mardi Gras next Saturday, instead of dreading a drawn-out and divisive plebiscite, Australians were celebrating marriage equality at last,” he said.



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In an interview with the ABC, Butler said on Monday she wanted the bill brought on for a vote but conceded the Coalition government could block the move.

“Maybe I won’t even get the chance to make a speech, who knows? It’s fully within the hands of the Liberals and the National parties, of course,” she said.

Butler said the move was not a stunt but rather an opportunity to deal with marriage equality before the election. She said she did not want to see a divisive debate “where across the country people are running ads that imply or outright say that LGBTI households are somehow inferior or different or not normal”.

Butler said parliament should do its job and legislate rather than outsource the issue to a plebiscite.

On Sunday former Liberal prime minister John Howard told Sky News he would have preferred same-sex marriage be dealt with by a free vote in parliament because he believes in representative democracy.

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But he said “having seen a plebiscite promised, the government must honour that promise”.

Australian Marriage Equality national director, Rodney Croome, welcomed Butler’s attempt to have marriage equality debated “because we are confident there is sufficient support among MPs to pass reform”.

“Debate in parliament will show the growing support for marriage equality among MPs, and the stronger that support grows the weaker the case for a plebiscite becomes,” he said.

Croome also urged the Senate to debate marriage equality because the government doesn’t control the agenda and “if [it] passes the Senate it will increase pressure on the government to allow a free vote in parliament rather than go to a costly, unnecessary and divisive plebiscite”.