A vote on whether members of Australia’s Parliament should poll their electorates to gauge public opinion regarding same-sex marriage is expected in the country’s House of Representatives on Thursday. If the motion passes, it could bring Australia one step closer to marriage equality for all.
The motion was put forth by the Australian Greens, a left-wing political party that supports gay marriage. Greens hold just a few seats in both Australia’s House of Representatives and the Senate and will need the votes of other members of Parliament (MPs) in order to pass the measure. The Greens are looking to Australia’s Labor Party, a center-left political party with majority representation in the House and Senate, for that support.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the motion is revealing schisms within the Labor Party coalition. Although the coalition is opposed to same-sex marriage, “A number of Labor MPs have voiced their support for same-sex marriage if a conscience vote were held on the issue but have said they would not cross the floor on the matter,” the Herald reports.
Members of Australia’s Parliament are usually required to vote with their party unless a conscience vote is taken.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard, herself a member of the Labor Party, remains opposed to same-sex marriage. As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, Gillard has not indicated that she will implement a change to the Labor Party’s position on gay marriage, even if it garners wide support among party members during its national conference, scheduled for the first week of December next year. Gillard moved the date of the conference up by more than six months in order to fully debate the issue without it affecting the election in 2013.
“I am in the same position as every other Labor leader. The platform is decided at conference and the federal parliamentary Labor Party, led by me, makes decisions about how we will go about working on platform decisions,” Gillard told the Herald.
