That election was held in July, and prime minister Malcolm Turnbull – who stabbed his leader, Abbott, in the back and took his job because Australia, lol – narrowly won the election, but didn't win a majority in the Senate.



That meant the government would need the opposition Labor party's support to make the plebiscite happen.

Labor has been signalling FOR MONTHS that it would block the move. It has a whole bunch of reasons for doing so, including:

The fact that it's just not necessary. Australia's High Court made it clear in 2013 that it's parliament's job to change the Marriage Act. (In Ireland, a constitutional referendum was the only way to introduce same-sex marriage.)



The cost, which is around $200 million – including $7.5 million taxpayer funding of the "yes" and "no" sides.



The fact that the vote isn't binding. Politicians could just ignore the result if they didn't like it – and some have said they would do just that.



But most of all, Labor didn't want to put LGBT Australians through a divisive, potentially harmful debate on their rights.



And Labor had the backing of just about every major LGBT group in Australia, who all said they didn't support the plebiscite, because of the harm it would cause, and that parliament should just do its job and legislate marriage equality.

So yesterday, after months of dropping hints, Labor leader Bill Shorten formally announced his party would vote against the plebiscite, meaning it will not pass the parliament.

“Children do not need to go to school in the climate of a plebiscite and have the integrity of their parents’ relationship challenged,” he said.

“I could not look at these loving families – the parents of gay people, people in committed same-sex relationships, young people whose parents are gay – and say to them that this plebiscite was good for them.”