{"id":34496,"date":"2016-07-22T11:34:59","date_gmt":"2016-07-22T01:34:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/?p=34496"},"modified":"2022-05-02T11:28:08","modified_gmt":"2022-05-02T01:28:08","slug":"divorced-from-reality-burgewords-comments-on-the-coalitions-marriageequality-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/divorced-from-reality-burgewords-comments-on-the-coalitions-marriageequality-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Divorced from reality: @burgewords comments on the Coalition’s #MarriageEquality problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TURNBULL\"<\/b><\/p>\n

The Coalition will just have to take care of itself, because the political wedge has finally hit its target.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

AFTER the Coalition\u2019s narrow win, the plebiscite on Marriage Equality should be getting ready to kick off, yet the same election promise has been blamed<\/a> for the major swing against Malcolm Turnbull.<\/p>\n

And the paradox has all the hallmarks of failure. In one of his delayed post-victory interviews, Malcolm Turnbull conceded the plebiscite would have to be pushed ahead to 2017<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His reason: \u201cMy commitment to have it dealt with as soon as practicable is there, but we… have to obtain the support of the Senate,\u201d Mr Turnbull told Leigh Sales on the ABC\u2019s 7.30<\/i> program.<\/p>\n

This rhetoric is in stark contrast to Mr Turnbull\u2019s pre-election claim<\/a> that a guaranteed \u2018yes\u2019 plebiscite result would \u201csail through the parliament\u201d under his leadership.<\/p>\n

At the dawn\u00a0of a more diverse Senate than the one Turnbull tried to shift with his double-dissolution election, another narrative swiftly emerged this week that throws even more doubt on the PM\u2019s grasp of the reins.<\/p>\n

A Galaxy poll commission by PFLAG<\/a> (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) conducted after the election indicates less than half of voters want a marriage equality plebiscite.<\/p>\n

So the promise Mr Turnbull campaigned on – majority community support for asking the people by the end of 2016 – has fallen flat.<\/p>\n

This is not a surprise. Equality campaigners not only saw it coming, we made it happen.<\/p>\n

Marital problems<\/b><\/h5>\n

In my electorate – the division of Bowman in South East Queensland – a small team of us started\u00a0door-knocking the neighbours of our federal MP Andrew Laming<\/a> in March.<\/p>\n

It proved to be a confronting process – knocking on doors asking for your human rights is not always fun – but we were already angry at how the mainstream media had given the Coalition’s Mr Laming a free kick\u00a0in 2015.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

When he appeared on Network Ten\u2019s The Project<\/i><\/a> Mr Laming claimed to be conducting a \u201cscientific survey\u201d of his constituents on Marriage Equality, and committed to vote in Canberra based on the results. Waleed Aly, Carrie Bickmore and the program\u2019s producers let his claims go live to air completely un-analysed.<\/p>\n

Mr Laming\u2019s annual information-gathering session in his electorate<\/a>\u00a0gave\u00a0voters one say per household on issues like live export and sand mining in addition to \u201cgay marriage\u201d, as though LGBTI want something special, like gay supermarkets, or gay sports fields. It came back – unsurprisingly – with 58 per cent against \u201cgay marriage\u201d.<\/p>\n

So we sorely needed data of our own. Working with national lobby group Australian Marriage Equality, a unique petition was devised in which we offered a \u2018yes\u2019 or a \u2018no\u2019 option to anyone registered to vote in this electorate who had a firm view either way on altering the Marriage Act<\/em> to allow same-sex couple equal access.<\/p>\n

Instead of Mr Laming\u2019s claim that Marriage Equality was a 50-50, \u201cred-hot issue\u201d across our community, what we found after months of cold-calling voters in their homes, at public transport hubs, shopping and at local markets, was more like the national trend in support for marriage equality: that is, overwhelming support<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our petition proved to be\u00a0an incredible experience. On several occasions we had people lining up to sign \u2018yes\u2019 to Marriage Equality, and locals engaged in many conversations about their LGBTI family members. If there was anything \u2018red hot\u2019 it was their anger that it was way past time for reform to be put in place by our elected representatives.<\/p>\n

On social media threads we dealt with all the usual naysayers, accusing us of only petitioning at \u2018gay discos\u2019, but most people got the message – we were open to anyone\u00a0with a firm view either way, and our percentage of \u2018no\u2019 signatures became strangely validating.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Fairfax Media picked up our data<\/a> and put it to Mr Laming, who said he: \u201cCouldn\u2019t care less\u201d, which ran as a headline for 24 hours until the MP\u2019s office hosed it down and reclaimed his first response as off the record. He subsequently apologised to petitioners and professed to be in support of our work.<\/p>\n

But when we delivered the petition results to Mr Laming at a meet-the-candidates event run by the local chamber of commerce, his rhetoric changed again.<\/p>\n

For the first time, the federal Member for Bowman indicated he\u2019d vote with the majority of this electorate\u2019s result at a national Marriage Equality plebiscite.<\/p>\n

Nowhere in Turnbull\u2019s plebiscite enthusiasm had there ever been a hint that the national result could be impacted by a rogue electorate. There had been talk from Senators and MPs about ignoring the nation and voting against Marriage Equality despite the plebiscite outcome, but that was written off as simply the hard-right rabble. We\u2019d sprung a backbencher toeing the same line.<\/p>\n

On social media, other campaigners were reporting similar language at meet-the-candidates events across the country. The dots were connected and the Coalition\u2019s new plan became clear: a marriage equality plebiscite would only pass a yes vote if it was carried by a majority of electorates.<\/p>\n

Questions were put into the laps of journalists. A record number posed them, and Turnbull was forced to admit he had no control over how his MPs would vote<\/a> on the issue.<\/p>\n

The Coalition countered with its last-minute claim that there was majority support nationally for the plebiscite<\/a>, but the media smelled a rat and hammered Turnbull and other MPs throughout the last week of the campaign.<\/p>\n

If the PM was not being upfront about the plebiscite, what else was on the nose?<\/p>\n

The stink nearly lost Turnbull the election.<\/p>\n

Marriage Equality activists are match fit and we’ve built an ongoing connection\u00a0with Australian voters.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Coalition in splitsville<\/b><\/h5>\n

So the timetable has altered and now there\u2019s evidence that voters don\u2019t like the idea, yet Turnbull is sticking to his plebiscite plan.<\/p>\n

But the election produced another result. The majority of federal MPs who support changing the Marriage Act<\/em> to allow equal access to same-sex couples increased to a record majority<\/a>. If a parliamentary free vote was held now, it would easily pass.<\/p>\n

One of the best headlines of the election campaign<\/a> described Malcolm Turnbull\u2019s plebiscite deal with the National Party as a \u2018Faustian pact\u2019. Now the dust has settled, the Coalition\u2019s betrothal on Marriage Equality will soon start to look more like the kind of stranglehold common in domestic violence.<\/p>\n

If Turnbull approaches the Senate with the plebiscite, it\u2019ll likely never pass. If he tries to seek refuge in a parliamentary free vote, he\u2019s likely to be rolled by the man who foisted the plebiscite nonsense on the Coalition with his last captain\u2019s pick: Tony Abbott.<\/p>\n

The Coalition’s response is to lead people\u00a0to think it\u2019s a case of plebiscite or nothing, but despite some commentators suggesting<\/a> campaigners just submit to the public vote for the Coalition\u2019s sake – in case it breaks apart – we are capable of multi-tasking around any\u00a0of the Coalition’s plans for\u00a0our equality.<\/p>\n

We’ve had plenty of practice.\u00a0The Coalition will just have to take care of itself, because the political wedge hit its target regardless of the election result. Other parties and lobby groups have started driving it in.<\/p>\n

For Malcolm Turnbull, there\u2019s simply no more hiding from the albatross he voluntarily tied to his own neck; yet he expects to resolve the marital problems the Coalition has always had around\u00a0LGBTI relationship equality with $160-million dollar pretty lies about \u2018asking the people\u2019.<\/p>\n

Blaming campaigners is like pointing at your spouse\u2019s best friend over your own divorce. Marriage Equality activists are match fit and we\u2019ve built an ongoing connection\u00a0with Australian voters by having the important conversations. Trigger a fairly posed, timely, compulsory, binding, public vote and we\u2019ll be there.<\/p>\n

\"9780994388704\"Michael Burge\u2019s book <\/i>Questionable Deeds: Making a stand for equal love<\/i><\/a> traces marriage equality in Australia through one man\u2019s battle to maintain his rights in the wake of his same-sex partner\u2019s death. It\u2019s available to buy in <\/i>paperback<\/i><\/a> and <\/i>eBook<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Michael Burge, all rights reserved. This article also appears on Michael\u2019s blog<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Coalition will just have to take care of itself, because the political wedge has finally hit its target. AFTER the Coalition\u2019s narrow win, the plebiscite on Marriage Equality should be getting ready to kick off, yet the same election promise has been blamed for the major swing against Malcolm Turnbull. And the paradox has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":34497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3434,3013,3547,585,855,854],"tags":[2610,3049,3052,212,1016,2750,304,856,3050,2631,2136,2463,421,3051,470,489],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/TURNBULL.jpg?fit=800%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3t0mw-8Yo","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34496"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34496"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55060,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34496\/revisions\/55060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}