Australia senator threatens to block legislation if free vote on gay marriage is not given Prime Minister Tony Abbott backs away from his election promise to allow a conscience vote on marriage equality 02 DECEMBER 2014 | BY DARREN WEE An Australian senator yesterday threatened to block legislation if the prime minister breaks his election promise to allow a conscience vote on gay marriage. Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm introduced a private bill to legalize gay marriage in parliament last week. In the run-up to the 2013 election, Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who strongly opposes marriage equality, repeatedly said he would give the Liberal party have a free vote on gay marriage if he won. However, he appeared back away from his promise yesterday (1 December). Abbott said, Normally, opposition private members motions in the senate are dealt with without a vote. Now, if this one is different, well, obviously the party room will consider it. But if is dealt with in the normal way, it wont actually come before the party room. In response, Leyonhjelm said he would block government legislation if a conscience vote is not allowed. Marriage equality advocates said they expected Abbott to stick to his pre-election promise. Mr Abbott made a clear, unequivocal pre-election promise to allow his Coalition colleagues to debate and decide on a conscience vote, said Rodney Croome, national director of Australian Marriage Equality, in a statement. By honouring this commitment Mr Abbott will help quell concerns that he all-too-lightly breaks his commitments to the electorate. I back Senator Leyonhjelms challenge to Mr Abbott because, like the majority of Australians, I want to see parliament get on with this overdue reform. The Labor party already has a conscience vote on the issue. - See more at: gaystarnews/article/australia-senator-threatens-block-legislation-if-free-vote-gay-marriage-not-given021214#sthash.Kq1OoWTF.dpuf
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 09:12:26 +0000
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