Alexander Downer, the former Foreign Affairs Minister, has given his predictions on what Tony Abbott will be like as Prime Minister and says marriage equality is unlikely to pass. The new PM’s former cabinet colleague does believe that a conscience vote will be allowed though.
Writing an opinion piece for news.com Mr Downer gave his analysis of what to expect from the Abbott government and how it would be different from the former Howard government.
Mr Downer said he believed that the new Prime Minister would allow Liberal party members a conscience vote on the issue, but it would not have sufficient support to pass into law. Mr Downer said he expected only one fifth of Coalition MP’s would be supportive of same sex marriage.
Any potential legislation would need to gain at least 76 votes to pass the lower house. At the moment it looks like the Labor Party will have 57 seats in the new parliament, The Greens will have one seat and there will be three independents.
Rodney Croome from Australian Marriage Equality thinks Mr Downer’s view is pessimistic.
It’s great that a respected Liberal Party elder has accepted that there will be a conscience vote on marriage equality,’ said Mr Croome.
Mr Croome believes that the level of support is much higher, and will continue to rise as more politicians declare their support.
OIP Staff
