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f you support marriage equality, you should not support an ALP conscience vote. A conscience vote will not change the Marriage Act, it will only set back the cause for a decade. The only way to bring about marriage equality is a bound vote and I'll explain exactly why.
In 2004, John Howard brought on legislation to define marriage as being a union between and man and women excluding all others. The ALP Platform was silent on this issue. The ALP Constitution dictates when the ALP Platform is silent, the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party (FPLP) will caucus, decide on a position and bind. Anthony Albanese, Penny Wong and Tanya Plibersek, leading voices for progressive changes and advocates of same sex marriage, were bound to vote with their party and the caucus in support of those changes.
At the 2009 ALP National Conference, it turned to the broader party to define a position. It was decided that there would be no votes on the floor of conference. While reforms to remove discrimination between same sex couples were adopted in the Platform, the following was also inserted:
These reforms are to be implemented consistently with Labor’s commitment to maintaining the definition of marriage as currently set out in the Marriage Act.
This was a binding position on every member of the FPLP with no exceptions. Since then, countless motions have been put up in the Senate in support of Marriage Equality or motions recognising community support for marriage equality. Every member of the FPLP has been bound to vote against this.
Over the years, the Prime Minister and other members of the Government have received a growing number of community questions about the issue of marriage equality as Spain, South Africa and New York all adopted the reform. Most times they said it is up to conference to change that decision. Now those words are beginning to backfire.
Rainbow Labor has been working across the country to build support at state conferences for marriage equality with almost every state and territory now calling for a change the National Conference. With the Labor Left binding in favour of a platform change and a large chunk of the Labor Right now supporting a change, things are looking positive. A conscience vote could change all that though.
Currently, the only issue which is granted an automatic conscience vote is abortion. It comes from a decision of the 1984 ALP Conference. The resolution was that:
Conference resolves that the matter of abortion can be freely debated at any State or federal forum of the Australian Labor Party, but any decision reached is not binding on any member of the Party.
There is a push by some to have a similarly worded resolution passed to ensure that support of marriage equality is not a binding position. If this happens, the cause of marriage equality will be significantly set back.
As ANU Professor John Warhurst has pointed out, almost no conscience vote has ever passed the Parliament without the support of the leaders of one of the two major parties. In the case of marriage equality, Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott are both publicly opposed.
If there is a conscience vote on marriage equality in the 43rd parliament, there is a strong likelihood that at least fifteen Lower House Labor MPs vote against marriage equality with strong pressure by those opposed to marriage equality from within the ALP. There is also not a chance that fifteen Coalition MPs will defy the orders of Tony Abbott to make up for those losses. In the Senate, similar numbers are likely to vote against marriage equality.
With a bound vote, the FPLP will vote as a bloc along with the four Coalition MPs that would cross the floor and marriage equality will become a reality. Without it, marriage equality will remain out of reach.
Ultimately a conscience vote makes marriage equality go the way of the Republic. We tried, we failed and it moves to the back burner, until in this case we elected enough ‘queens’ to the parliament.
Mustafa Masalkhi is a Canberra-based marriage equality activist
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