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Australia ruling party blocks members from voting for gay marriage

W!nston

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Australia ruling party blocks members from voting for gay marriage
Reuters | By Matt Siegel | Tue, 11 Aug 2015 12:43 GMT

SYDNEY, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's conservative coalition government on Tuesday blocked its members from voting in favour of gay marriage, a politically risky move that effectively rules out a marriage equality bill passing under his government.

The decision by Abbott to use parliamentary tactics to thwart the libertarian wing of his Liberal Party comes just six months after he narrowly survived a party room coup and amid dismal polls that have reignited speculation over his future.

In the Australian parliament, crossing the floor is extremely rare and lawmakers can face severe retribution up to expulsion if they defy the party to vote against their colleagues. The coalition's current position is against same-sex marriage.

Public opinion is strongly in favour of legalising the practice but Abbott, a socially conservative Catholic, has manoeuvred to head off a free vote.

On Tuesday, Abbott called a rare meeting of the full coalition party room to decide the issue. The presence of right-wing coalition partner The Nationals overwhelmed support for a free vote among Abbott's Liberals by a ratio two to one.

"If you support the existing definition of marriage between a man and a woman, the coalition is absolutely on your side but if you would like to see change at some time in the future, the coalition is prepared to make that potentially possible," Abbott told reporters after the near six-hour meeting, suggesting a public referendum on the matter.

"The disposition is that it should happen through a people's vote rather than simply through a parliament vote."

The tactical success over gay marriage could prove politically costly as Abbott struggles to keep his footing following a series of perceived gaffes and amid a sagging economy.

Ireland backed same-sex marriage by a landslide earlier this year in a referendum that marked a dramatic social shift in a traditionally Catholic country that only decriminalised homosexuality two decades ago.

Australia's opposition Labor Party seized on the Irish referendum and days later introduced a bill to legalise same sex marriage, the first by a major Australian political party.

A telephone survey of 1,000 people conducted in Australia a year ago by polling agency Crosby-Textor found support for legalising same-sex marriage at 72 percent. (Editing by Lincoln Feast and Nick Macfie)

SOURCE

How can this be? Australia seems to be way ahead of the curve on some social issues and so far behind it on others. If the vast majority of Aussies favor Gay Equality how can the government refuse to even discuss the matter without fear of rejection at the polls? Am I missing something here? Do Aussies favor Gay Equality or not? I'm confused... nothing new about that but still...
 
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gb2000ie

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If the vast majority of Ausies favor Gay Equality how can the government refuse to even discuss the matter without fear of rejection at the polls? Am I missing something here? Do Aussies favor Gay Equality or not? I'm confused... nothing new about that but still...

Welcome to the down-side of a parliamentary system with single-seat constituencies.

If 50.1% of voters in a district vote for someone, that person represents everyone in that district. Single-seat constituencies make it very hard for small parties to get a fair representation in parliament. In theory, if you have a perfectly distributed 51% of support, you can win 100% of seats in parliament. The reality is never that biased, but seats in parliament will almost never accurately represent people's views.

Add to that the fact that Australia now has a coalition government, and you realise that Abbot's party does not even control half of the seats, so his party absolutely positively does NOT represent the majority of Australians.

By forcing members of parties to tow the party line, you can easily get majority votes in parliament for things most of the people do not agree with.

America suffers similarly because it too has single-seat constituencies. How representative is the house of representatives of the views of the American people? Not very!

Ireland's parliament is much more representative because our constituencies have between 3 and 5 seats (depending on population), so both large and small parties get seats in parliament. The match between the breakdown of the popular vote, and the seats in parliament is not perfect in Ireland, but the gap is much smaller than it is in countries with single-seat constituencies.

B.
 

W!nston

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Is there no Supreme Court in Australia to balance the power and protect citizens from the abuse such a system has inherently? If there is a Supreme Court why hasn't it acted? Has no one filed suit against the discrimination? What about the indigenous peoples of Australia? Are they not given protected status to protect them from discrimination? I thought they were but I could be wrong. I guess I'm ignorant of a lot of things and this Australian thing proves it, lol.

I really am confused about it. I know there are Aussies here. I hope some of them will shed more light on the situation there.

Thanks for your insights GB. Always good to read your posts...

Sniff :)
 

gb2000ie

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Perhaps only marginally related, but a great explanation of why winner-takes-all electoral systems end up with governments that do not represent the real wishes of the people:

 

SilverWolf

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Perhaps only marginally related, but a great explanation of why winner-takes-all electoral systems end up with governments that do not represent the real wishes of the people:


We have the same problem here in Canada...stuck with a Conservative Government for the last 10 years...

We go to the polls in October and we have an excellent chance of getting rid of them.

First past the post is useless to say the least.

Proportional Representation is what is needed.
 
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