Australian senior minister calls for postal vote on same-sex marriage
A senior minister in Australia has called on the government to hold a postal vote on same-sex marriage.
Peter Dutton is one of the most senior members of parliament as the Immigration and Home Affairs minister.
He is also notoriously anti-LGBT, having told gay business executive Alan Joyce to “stick to knitting”.
Dutton also previously derided a business letter urging the coalition government to stop block same-sex marriage equality as “politically correct nonsense”.
Speaking to Sky News, Dutton reignited the debate on same-sex marriage.
He said: “I think there is momentum in relation to having the matter resolved one way or the other.
“I’m working on the assumption that this issue is going to be dealt with in this Parliament,” he said of proposing a postal vote.
A postal vote, similarly to a plebiscite, is not compulsory.
It also does not require legislation to establish, but would be a more cheaply administered option than a regular plebiscite.
The proposal has been slammed by Bill Shorten, the leader of the opposition party, Labor.
He tweeted: “The postal plebiscite is a policy for a government that has neither the intellect to know what to do nor the courage to do what is right.”
It comes after current Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said that the debate should not be revisited until after the next election in 2019.
Turnbull has proposed that a plebiscite should be held.
However, this has been met with backlash because it is not legally binding.
Many believe that it could also be divisive over an issue which could easily be decided in Parliament.
A national vote is not necessary to make same-sex marriage legal in the country, and efforts to bring one about have so far been rejected.
