Your ‘free vote’ will cost $122m
Then the MPs are free to ignore what you said
AUSTRALIANS will get a chance to have their say on whether to make gay marriage legal before the end of the year.
And it’s set to cost taxpayers $122 million.
Coalition MPs have decided a postal vote on marriage equality will be held before November if they are unable to secure support for a traditional plebiscite in Parliament this week.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann announced the government’s plans for the postal vote at Parliament House yesterday.
Under the plan, the Australian Bureau of Statistics will conduct the postal vote with assistance from Australian Electoral Commission officers.
Ballot papers would begin arriving in letter boxes for every Australian on the electoral roll by September 12.
The question will be whether Australians believe the Marriage Act should be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry.
Australians will not be forced to vote on the issue; the postal plebiscite would be voluntary.
A final result would be secured by November 15.
MPs would then be given a free vote in Parliament if a majority of Australians vote ‘Yes’ but they would not be bound to vote in line with the results of the plebiscite.
If Australians vote ‘No’, the government will not go ahead with the free vote.
Mr Turnbull said the postal vote was a way for the government to keep its election promise to allow a public vote on the issue.
A traditional plebiscite run by the Australian Electoral Commission would cost up to $170 million.
If the government is able to secure support in the senate for the full plebiscite, which is unlikely given it was already blocked once in November, it would be held on November 25.
Senator Cormann was to put a motion for a vote on the full plebiscite yesterday.
Labor and marriage equality groups question whether a postal vote would be legal if the government does not gain authorisation to spend Commonwealth funds for one.
“The Commonwealth can’t spend money without legislation in the Parliament authorising the expenditure of that money, unless it’s part of the ordinary activities of a department,” shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus told Sky News.
“On no view could the conduct of a national voluntary postal vote be seen as part of the ordinary activities of any ... departments.”
Equality campaigners have already warned they would launch a High Court challenge over the postal vote’s legality if the government tried to hold one without senate authorisation.
Mr Dreyfus didn’t rule out Labor joining the legal action but said the party would only take that step if the case was not being put “adequately”.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten slammed the Liberal Party’s policy as a delaying tactic.