It would be “reasonable” for Labor to demand the government drop public funding for the same-sex marriage plebiscite campaign in return for its support, the education minister, Simon Birmingham, has said.
The 11th-hour proposal comes as Labor’s shadow cabinet considers the plebiscite on Monday evening and it goes to caucus on Tuesday, a process expected to lock in Labor’s opposition to the non-binding vote.
The comments are likely to irritate conservatives who successfully argued for public funding to help the no case overcome a perceived funding gap with the yes case.
On Sky TV on Monday, Birmingham was asked about dropping the $15m of public funding for the yes and no cases in the plebiscite. He said it would be a “reasonable request” and one the government would consider if Labor “wants to take [it] out in return for a plebiscite”.
“If Labor wants to come back and actually say they’re will to accept a plebiscite under certain conditions, we’d love to hear those conditions,” he said. “If they are viable and legally achievable, then we’d be open to them.”
He noted on Monday last week that the shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, refused to suggest changes to the plebiscite that would be sufficient to win Labor support. At the same meeting the attorney general, George Brandis, refused to nominate which compromises the government could offer.
“We’ve worked hard to try to keep the cost of the plebiscite as low as possible, to make sure there are safeguards around any government funding advertisement that occurs so that we can ensure it is respectable,” Birmingham said.
On Monday Malcolm Turnbull said the government had done “everything we can to win the support of the crossbenchers, of the Labor party and the Greens”.
Asked if the government had a plan B if the plebiscite was blocked, Turnbull said “the only obstacle to this is Bill Shorten and the Labor party” but did not rule out a free vote in parliament.
Turnbull said Shorten had “a very big call to make”.
“Does he want this issue resolved on the 11th of February or not? If he does want it resolved then, it’s not far away, he should support the plebiscite.”
Asked in Senate question time on Monday if he thought opponents of the plebiscite were fools, Brandis said he thought “it is very foolish for those who wish to see marriage equality ... to pass up the best and nearest opportunity to achieve that outcome soon”.
Brandis said that before the election 70% of Australians wanted a plebiscite. He explained the government won the election on the policy of a plebiscite and it “intends to keep to that commitment”.
Since the election polls have shown that a parliamentary vote is now more popular than a plebiscite.
On Monday cabinet will consider substantive changes to the Marriage Act, which will be released before the House of Representatives and Senate consider the bill to set up the plebiscite on Tuesday and Wednesday. The changes include the extent of protections for religious and conscientious objectors to same-sex marriage.
Brandis will propose that the protections be limited to ministers of religion and civil celebrants but several conservative MPs including George Christensen and Cory Bernardi have called for the protections protect all goods and service providers who refuse to serve same-sex weddings.
On Monday Australian Marriage Equality released ReachTel polling that showed two-thirds of Australians voters want marriage equality to be legislated by parliament before the end of the year.
The poll of 2,740 people found that 46.2% thought it was very important to legislate marriage equality before the end of the year, 19.5% said it was somewhat important and 34.3% said it was not at all important.
When Brandis said the government was prepared to compromise on the plebiscite, Labor said its objections could be mitigated by scrapping public funding, setting clearer rules on advertising and making the plebiscite self-executing, ushering in marriage equality automatically if the yes vote won.
But Labor has set out many other objections including its effect on vulnerable LGBTI people, that it treats LGBTI rights differently to other issues decided by parliament and the precedent the departure from the normal process of representative democracy sets.
Labor, the Greens, the Nick Xenophon Team, Senator Derryn Hinch and Australian Marriage Equality have called on the government to allow a free vote in the parliament if the plebiscite is blocked.
