The Greens are trying to get on the front foot on their same-sex marriage legislation after a messy day in the Senate that saw the party gag debate on its own bill.
The Liberal democrat senator David Leyonhjelm moved a motion on Tuesday to have the Senate debate a Greens bill on removing barriers to same-sex marriage, as a way of postponing debate on Senate voting reforms.
The Greens voted alongside the Coalition to gag debate on the bill, saying the party would instead push for the legislation to be debated on Thursday during time reserved for bills presented by the opposition and crossbenchers.
The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, strongly denied that voting down the procedural motion was the same as rejecting their own same-sex marriage legislation.
“We have a long history of campaigning for an end to discrimination and prejudice in marriage,” he said.
We will always support #MarriageEquality. We call on Labor to bring it on in Private Sen’s Time this Thurs #auspol pic.twitter.com/952H8SmUGN
— Robert Simms (@SimmsRobert) March 15, 2016
The private members’ time this Thursday is allocated to Labor bills, but Labor has given it up in order for the Greens’ bill to be debated.
Labor will not gag debate on the bill, meaning that it is unlikely to go to a vote in the one hour reserved for private members’ business. If the Greens had supported the Leyonhjelm motion, the same-sex marriage bill would have to be voted on before the Senate rises this week.
Labor has accused the Greens of using the Thursday debate as a way of “trying to justify” gagging the Leyonhjelm motion.
Labor’s Senate leader, Penny Wong, said: “They had an opportunity [to bring it to a vote] this morning, and they squibbed it, and they now want to make Australians believe that somehow an hour-long debate is somehow the same. This is cynical politics at its best.”
“Senator Di Natale led them over to the other side to sit with people like Senator Abetz and Senator Bernardi who are vehemently opposed to same-sex marriage,” Wong said. “It is a sort of combination of spinelessness and incompetence if I may say so.”
Di Natale replied: “These are crocodile tears. This is cynical wedge politics.”
However, the Greens leader is convinced that a vote can still go through. “We think that there’s a great opportunity here that, if the numbers are there, that we can bring this on for a vote,” he said, conceding that “the numbers are pretty tight”.
The Greens bill, which aims to remove restrictions in the Marriage Act that prohibit same-sex couples from marrying, would still need to go to the House of Representatives if it is passed by the Senate.
The Coalition wants to hold a plebiscite on same-sex marriage if it wins re-election, while Labor has granted its members a free vote in parliament on the issue.
A new Essential poll released on Tuesday showed 64% of Australians were in favour of same-sex marriage, and two out of three respondents were in favour of taking the issue to a national vote, such as a plebiscite.
The Coalition negotiated a deal with the Greens to extend sitting hours this week in order to pass legislation on Senate voting reform.
