Turnbull fails on election pledge for same sex marriage vote this year
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will push back the national plebiscite on same-sex marriage to February next year, failing on his election promise for a vote by the end of 2016.
It is expected Turnbull will announce the new timeline for a plebiscite to legalise gay marriage at a Coalition partyroom on September 13, with Australians to vote in February 2017, the Daily Telegraph reported.
Throughout this year's Federal election campaign, the PM and Attorney-General George Brandis pledged a vote on same-sex marriage would be achieved by the end of the year.
The vote will be compulsory, with fines imposed for those who fail to respond to expected question: “Do you approve of a law to permit people of the same sex to marry?”
"The government has always said that a decision on same-sex marriage will be made by a vote of all Australians in a national plebiscite to be held as soon as practicable," a spokesperson for Malcolm Turnbull told Fairfax.
"That commitment has not changed. Late last week, the AEC provided advice to the Special Minister of State that strongly recommended against the conduct of a plebiscite this calendar year."
Opposition leader Bill Shorten has been open about his plans to block the plebiscite vote through gaining other MPs support and staging a "rainbow" rebellion.
"What is the case for $160 million to be spent on a taxpayer-funded opinion poll, which the hard right of the Liberal Party said they're not going to be bound by anyway?" he told the Sydney Morning Herald last month.
“I don’t want to give the haters the chance to come out from underneath the rock.”
In order for the plebiscite to go ahead, both the Senate and the House of Representatives must first approve a vote. MPs must then give the plan the green light, however if Bill Shorten can convince enough Liberal MPs, the plan to go to national vote could be vetoed.
The plebiscite is not binding and Parliament could again be asked to vote.
The vote has been cause of debate among senior cabinet ministers, who oppose the $160 million taxpayer-funded poll, and say it will likely fuel homophobia.
Greens senator Robert Simms previously said it was difficult for Mr Turnbull to justify spending $160 million on a "giant opinion poll that isn't even binding on his own members".
"It's time for some spine from this prime minister," he said in a statement.
Labor senator Penny Wong took aim at the prime minister in June on Twitter, saying: "Malcolm Turnbull didn't give supporters of marriage equality a free vote before the election, but will give opponents of marriage equality a free vote after the election. Traded his principles for the leadership."
