Matthew Mitcham, Olympic diving champion
“I don’t feel that this plebiscite is the best way to achieve equality. Don’t get me wrong, I want equal marriage more than anything. But the idea of gay hate groups being funded with taxpayers’ money to spread their negativity doesn’t thrill me.”
Asked if the prospect of delay if the plebiscite were blocked affected his view, Mitcham replied: “Not really.”
“We’ve been very patient. If I have to wait a little bit longer for it to be done the right way, so be it.”
Christos Tsiolkas, author
“I think that same-sex marriage is an issue that has blindsided both the right and the left – neither side saw it coming. So I see the issue as indicating that politics and culture are shifting and that the political class, who are my generation and older, are fearful and distrustful of these changes.
“The plebiscite is a delaying tactic, emerging from this fear and distrust. But so was the prevarications of Labor in the Gillard years. I believe we would have had same-sex marriage now if it weren’t for her government.
“Like the religious right, the feminist left (which I am part of) is busy counting the number of angels that can dance on a pin, trying to parse the meanings and contradictions of marriage when it is clear that the issue is now one of equal rights. Basically, this is older men and women screeching at young people: How dare you espouse a politics that doesn’t mirror ours!
“Can they just fucking do their job and take it to a vote in parliament? The nation is ready and all this is part of the same political shortsightedness that is blighting the future of my country.”
Rowena Allen, Victorian gender and sexuality commissioner
“I don’t think we need a plebiscite – it’s expensive and a waste of money. I won’t comment on what political parties do on the issue, but it’s a bad precedent for us to have a human rights issue go to a public opinion poll.
“[My opposition] is about the message it sends to LGBTI people in Australia – that it is subject to a vote at all.”
Bob Brown, former leader of the Australian Greens
In an interview with the Conversation, Brown said: “The first thing to be said is that parliament should always have dealt with this.
“I was there ... when Labor joined with John Howard as prime minister to discriminate in marriage, it didn’t say this before, it said ‘the commonwealth is in charge of marriage and people can get married’, but they changed it to disqualify everyone but a man and a woman to get married. That didn’t go to a plebiscite.
“Now we’re in the position, we’re changing it back to neutrality so that any two people that love each other can get married, it’s got to go, we’re told, to a plebiscite.
“The parliament should deal with it. However, if push comes to shove, I think the door should be left open for a plebiscite. Because I think it’s the wrong way to go but I think that down the line it’s three more years of waiting.
“We’re told the LGBTI community is going to offer horrendous insults if we got to a plebiscite. Day in, day out, that is the case ... However I worry about allowing this to continue year after year.
“Malcolm Turnbull, where are you? This is your own inclination, you should insist there be a vote in the parliament, a free vote of your members, and you should put your leadership on the line about it, get this over and done with and the nation will be grateful to you.
“But if that’s not to be the case, we have to think again about leaving it as the conservatives, the George Christensens of the world and the Christian lobby want it, ‘let’s put it off in the hope it will never happen’. That leaves Australia at the back of the pack, and it leaves a [group] of Australians denied their rights.”
Julie McCrossin, broadcaster and comedian
“Back in July 1999 I gave a speech at the Sydney Institute to a big conservative crowd titled ‘Always a bridesmaid, never a bride’. It called for the right to marry for people like my partner, Melissa Gibson, and myself. Melissa had been a bridesmaid eight times. Why, I asked, could she never be a bride?
“Melissa had two small children, Luke and Amelia, when we met and fell in love 21 years ago.
“When Amelia was six, she joined me one Sunday to watch a home video of a wedding reception, to prepare for a reception I had agreed to host. As tiny Amelia and I watched a happy couple cutting the cake, she said, ‘Why don’t you and Mum get married?’ It was one of those moments when a question from a child’s mouth meant I heard it in a fresh way, as if for the first time.
“Homosexuality is all about family. It is about fear of rejection from your blood family if you tell them the truth. It is about the almost universal trauma of breaking the silence and ‘coming out’ to your mum and dad and then extended family. Sometimes it is about a lifelong silence with your family of origin because saying the word ‘homosexuality’ out aloud is simply unimaginable. It is about reconciliation with your blood family, often over decades. Or it is about a lifetime of fracture because it is utterly unacceptable.
“Marriage is about family formation. It is a public celebration of the birth of a new family. It is a legal contract and a love contract. It is a new beginning. This is why many of us in the gay community care so much about marriage and why we will keep knocking on the door until it opens, as it has in our sister democracies in the UK, Canada, the US and beyond.
“Our children, Amelia and Luke are grown up now. When I got cancer three years ago, I was scared my time would run out. So we all travelled to New York and Melissa became a bride at last. Our Uniting Church at South Sydney held a blessing ceremony for our family on our return. I have never seen the children so happy.
“I’d rather wait a few more years than see a plebiscite in Australia. I don’t want to expose the children of Australia to mass media coverage of the dark and dreadful views that a proportion of our community hold about homosexuality. I’d rather die before my Manhattan marriage is recognised legally in Australia than see all the children with a gay person in their extended family witness the dogs of ancient prejudice unleashed.”
Tim Wilson, Liberal MP and former Australian Human Rights Commissioner
In an opinion piece for the Sydney Morning Herald, Tim Wilson warned: “Minorities should never accept the seductive lie that it is better to wait for the fundamental right of equality before the law, than fight for it.
“Many people who support a change in the law seem to think blocking a plebiscite is a victory. It isn’t.”
Wilson said that he cried when Tony Abbott announced he would push for a plebiscite.
“Then I realised that there was no point wallowing in self-pity. History isn’t delivered on a silver platter. It has to be fought for. I realised that it was an opportunity to bring the country together and fight for the type of country we want.
“A plebiscite is a time for parents, friends, colleagues and allies to stand up and be counted. The experience in Ireland shows they do.
“It won’t amplify loneliness and isolation, it will respond to it.
“If we don’t have a plebiscite this is what happens over the next three years: we wait, opponents continue to argue against a change in the law, there are no guarantees it passes the next parliament and we may still have a plebiscite.
“The plebiscite may not be the pathway many people want to change the law, but now is better than three years, and resolution is better than stagnation.”
Rodney Croome, veteran gay rights campaigner
“I’m against a plebiscite because it’s ethically the wrong way to achieve marriage equality, and because I think it has less chance of success than continuing to press for a vote in parliament.
“Ethically, it’s wrong because it will be so costly, so divisive, and most of all, it will put vulnerable LGBTI people in harm’s way. Life is already hard enough for young and isolated LGBTI people without subjecting them to the hatred we will inevitably see during a plebiscite.
“Politically, it makes no sense to trust marriage equality to a plebiscite. If a plebiscite is poorly framed we could lose the national vote. Because a plebiscite isn’t binding we could win the national vote and lose the vote in parliament.
“Meanwhile, we already have majorities in both house of parliament. There’s a good chance the Coalition will consider a free vote if a plebiscite is knocked on the head. Even if it doesn’t, we only need a few members to cross the floor to get marriage equality through. Marriage equality is more achievable through parliament than through a plebiscite.”
Mark Trevorrow, comedian and television host
“I totally support any decision to block the plebiscite. I was a bit on the fence, because I thought we’d have to get through it. But when I saw Michael Kirby on Lateline it completely convinced me that a plebiscite would be so damaging to young LGBTI people.
“I realised that the kids out there that are struggling would have to listen to weeks and months of what we already listen to, the comment threads on Facebook, the hatred and ignorance and stupidity – that is a taste of what we’re in for.
“The idea that the plebiscite is the only way same-sex marriage will pass this term of parliament is the most pathetic argument. We’re in la la land with this plebiscite, the only people who want it are the hard right that are furious with Malcolm Turnbull for taking over as prime minister. Others are pretending that they want it, but it’s really just to keep Liberal party from splitting open publicly.
“I’ve been with my partner for three years and I’d love to marry him, but I’m happy to wait another few years to avoid what this plebiscite will do to LGBTI kids all over Australia, sitting there in loneliness and fear while homophobic crap rains down on their heads.
“The fact I might have to wait a few years doesn’t matter a damn – it’s going to happen.”
Christine Forster, Liberal candidate for Sydney Lord Mayor and sister of Tony Abbott
In comments to the Australian Forster said: “The blocking of the [plebiscite-enabling] legislation will mean that [marriage equality] won’t happen any time in the next three years.
“My concern is like that of any person who would like to marry their same-sex partner: I want to see this reform happen. I want to see this issue resolved once and for all and as soon as possible so I can get married.
“Forster said Australians were capable of having a respectful debate and that she had more confidence in the public than to think the plebiscite ‘will unleash some torrent of hatred’.
“Obviously there are some people who discriminate and vilify homosexuals but those people have always been there. They are not going to go away.
“[But] it could be a really unifying nation defining moment just like it was in Ireland – a very uplifting and positive outcome.”
Australian Marriage Equality co-chairman Alex Greenwich and national spokeswoman Shirleene Robinson
“The reality is no one party has the numbers to deliver marriage equality on its own. The Coalition, Labor, the Greens and independents need to urgently come together and agree on a pathway to deliver this straightforward reform in this parliament.
“The majority of Australians back marriage equality and we have waited long enough. Our political leaders need to outline the agreed pathway to marriage equality without delay.
“Australian Marriage Equality has led the charge for a free vote on marriage equality, and strongly believe a plebiscite is unnecessary.”
Simon Burke, actor
“I absolutely support the Greens and Nick Xenophon Team’s decision to block the plebiscite and would strongly support Labor doing the same.
“Those insisting on a plebiscite in the government say we’re better than this, we’ll have a legitimate and moderate debate. I’ve already seen stuff I’d be very concerned with young kids or any LGBTI people in distress being exposed to.
“The thing that’s fixed in my craw more than anything is that the plebiscite was a device by ultra-conservatives to delay marriage equality.”
Asked about the prospect of delay, Burke said it was not a binary matter of accepting the plebiscite or years of delay. “That’s not the end of it,” he said.
“Look internationally, at the way Barack Obama moderated his views, or Kevin Rudd. People of influence are catching up to the idea marriage equality is a human rights issue.”
