Tony Abbott’s government may be in trouble, given that practically everyone in Australia except Tony Abbott supports the right of same-sex couples to marry.
Last week Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott brokered a shaky deal. In exchange for promising to allow the nation to vote on same-sex marriage, members of his majority party would promise to vote against any bills allowing same-sex couples to marry.
76 percent of the nation wants to vote on marriage equality, and polls show strong support – 69% to 72% – for extending marriage to same-sex couples.
The problem for Abbott is his deal wouldn’t allow a national vote until after the August 2016 elections, and for most, including Australia’s estimated 33,000 same-sex couples, that’s too long to wait. Abbott, who virulently opposes same-sex marriage despite having an outspoken sister who is a lesbian – and a councillor in Sydney – insists the vote not taken place at the same time as the national elections vote, likely because it would cost him and his party the election.
But so will blocking marriage for same-sex couples.
Enter Warren Entsch, a member of Abbott’s own party.
Entsch’s bio describes him as a former “railway porter, insurance clerk, real estate salesman, fitter and turner with a mining company, grazier, crocodile farmer,” who “served Australia for nine years in the RAAF as an aircraft engine fitter.” Â
“His personal interests are just as diverse as his professional and include horse riding, art, aviculture and bushwalking. But his biggest love, aside from his family, is his Harley Davidson.”
Entsch also says he is the “least likely†supporter of marriage equality, yet he has been fighting for it for over a decade.
This morning, defying his Prime Minister, Entsch introduced into Parliament a bill allowing same-sex couples to marry.
It has broad support across party lines, yet likely will not even get a vote, thank to Tony Abbott.
“This bill is designed to promote an inclusive Australia, not a divided one,â€Â Entsch told Parliament. “A divided nation is what we will be if we continue to allow discrimination in relation to marriage on the basis of a person’s sexuality.â€
On Facebook, Entsch noted that the “main purpose of this Bill is not a complex one – it is to give same-sex couples in Australia the same right to marry the person they love as that which is currently only granted by law to heterosexual couples.”
The Wall Street Journal this morning describes the “split” among lawmakers in his own party on marriage equality as “spelling trouble” for Abbott, and cites his low poll numbers.
Six lawmakers crossed party lines today to support Entsch’s bill.
Same-sex couples may not have the support of conservative Catholic Tony Abbott, but they have the support of the majority of Australians, and that could be the end of Tony Abbott’s shaky government.
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Image: Screenshot via Warren Entsch/YouTube