Former Australian PM campaigning against gay marriage
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A former prime minister on Wednesday began campaigning against gay marriage in Australia ahead of a promised public vote on the divisive issue that could begin next month.
“I say to you: If you don’t like same-sex marriage, vote ‘no.’ If you worry about freedom of speech and freedom of religion, vote ‘no;’ and if you don’t like political correctness, vote ‘no’ because this is the best way to stop it in its tracks,” Tony Abbott told reporters outside Parliament House.
The conservative government has proposed two options to give Australians their say on same-sex marriage, both of which face hurdles and condemnation by gay-rights advocates.
The government’s preferred option is a compulsory, non-binding and rare vote known as a plebiscite to be held on Nov. 25 at a cost of 170 million Australian dollars.
The Senate is likely to reject the plebiscite, as it did in November.
The second option is a voluntary plebiscite in which voters would mail their ballots from Sept. 12 until Nov. 7 at a cost of AU$122 million. Opponents disagree with the government’s legal opinion that the postal plebiscite doesn’t need Senate approval and plan to stop it with a court injunction.
Parliament would vote on legislation before the last two-week session of the year ends on Dec. 7, but only if a plebiscite shows most Australians want gay marriage.
Gay-rights advocates argue that a majority of lawmakers already support marriage equality and that legislation should be voted on now.
Successive opinion polls show most Australians support gay marriage. But national referendums in Australian rarely change the status quo.
The plebiscite pits Abbott, a former Roman Catholic seminarian who remains a government lawmaker, against gay-marriage advocate Malcolm Turnbull, who replaced Abbott as prime minister.
Abbott was prime minister in August 2015 when his coalition resolved infighting over gay marriage by agreeing to a plebiscite after the 2016 election. Opponents saw the policy as a stalling tactic to sideline the issue ahead of the election.
Abbott was replaced by Turnbull a month after the plebiscite policy was adopted. Turnbull, like other gay-rights supporters, disagreed with the plebiscite, but he promised to maintain the policy in a deal with party powerbrokers to oust Abbott, who was unpopular in opinion polling.
Turnbull, whose popularity has also waned in opinion polling, said on Tuesday he would campaign for the “yes” vote.
“I have other calls on my time as prime minister, but I will certainly support a ‘yes’ vote,” Turnbull told reporters.