By KATHRYN BERMINGHAM
A FREE vote on marriage equality has been shot down by the Coalition, despite both La Trobe MP Jason Wood and McMillan MP Russell Broadbent voting in favour of the idea.
A six-hour party room meeting on Tuesday night returned a 66 to 33 result against allowing members to vote independently.
Mr Wood said that he advocated in favour of a free vote at the meeting.
“It was the best debate I’ve been involved in for a while. Basically, everyone was asked to reveal the way they would vote and there was a great deal of discussion,” he said.
“This was a key election issue, and it was decided that the Coalition will maintain its stance at that election.”
He said he believed that opposition to marriage equality from members of the Labor Party would have prevented the motion from passing, even if it had been put to a free vote.
“This is possibly the best outcome for those who support same sex marriage. We’re better off putting it to a people’s vote.”
Mr Wood has conducted a poll on the issue within La Trobe, asking constituents to declare their views.
As of Monday 10 August, 57.8 per cent of the 5095 respondents to Mr Wood’s survey answered that they support change to the Marriage Act to allow same-sex marriage in Australia.
“The response to the survey has been huge, and that was something that I did raise.”
Mr Wood said he would not cross the floor in voting on the issue, and supported the Prime Minister’s declaration that frontbenchers who crossed the floor would be demoted.
“That’s always been the Liberal Party policy,” he said.
“I’ve never crossed the floor and I have no intention of crossing the floor. To me, you do that you’re going to lose anyway.
“In the Howard era, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion, the whole possibility would have been off the table.”
Mr Broadbent said today that while he supported the idea of a free vote on the issue, he would vote against it in parliament.
“I agree with the idea of a conscience vote – I believe my colleagues should be able to vote on their own on this issue.
“There are clearly many different approaches to this issue, and the result yesterday was indicative of that.
However, he remained firm in his opposition to the changes.
“I’ve said before, I wouldn’t support any kind of changes to the Marriage Act. Marriage is the bedrock of our society, and I believe that it should remain unchanged,” he said.
“I read it as gay marriage, not marriage equality.”
Both Mr Wood and Mr Broadbent said they would support a plebiscite on the issue.
