Australian Conservatives leader Cory Bernardi has argued that any legislation to allow same sex marriage will have to be carefully considered by the parliament, and may take some time before it could actually become law.
Last week Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull restated his belief that if the marriage postal survey returned a ‘yes’ vote, the legislation would “sail through” parliament and the issue would be dealt with before Christmas.
Senator Bernardi told the ABC’s Radio National Breakfast program this morning that he’d like to a much slower approach to changing the laws.
I do note that a senior government minister has said we will sit until Christmas Eve to make this happen,” Bernardi said.
“But I don’t want to legislate in haste. I would rather make sure that if we’re going to make a profound change to one of out great institutions that we’re doing it with a great deal of prudence.”
Senator Bernardi said the private members bill put forward by Liberal Senator Dean Smith, which is also supported by the Labor party, was inadequate.
The South Australian senator said regardless of what the people opt for in the marriage survey he will be voting no when the legislation is put before parliament.
It has previously been reported that Senator Bernardi is working alongside conservative members of the Liberal party to develop an alternative marriage bill that has greater protections for religious freedoms and religious organisations.
Alex Greenwich from Marriage Equality Australia told Buzzfeed News that Australians were voting in the postal survey to bring in marriage equality, not to wind back exiting anti-discrimination laws.
Greenwich said he hoped that other politicians would simply ignore such suggestions.
“I hope that nobody has time for them”.
“After having advocated so strongly for the plebiscite, to then towards the end try to further complicate things and drag them out, it’s a sign that there are people on the ‘no’ side who are just interested in playing politics with the lives of gay and lesbian people,” Greenwich said.
“That’s becoming increasingly evident as time goes on.”
OIP Staff
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