Today is a big one in Canberra. The Coalition party room has voted to send a bill to parliament, seeking approval to hold a plebiscite, which itself will seek approval from the Australian people for the government to change the law to allow same-sex marriage. The proposed plebiscite will be held on February 11, 2017.
The usual parliamentary shenanigans are in progress, with multiple Independents introducing private member’s bills to change the law in parliament, without approval of a plebiscite. Liberal Democrats Senator David Leyonjhelm has aptly described this as a pissing contest to claim ownership of the issue.
The rhetoric against holding a plebiscite has sunk quite literally as low as it can go, with Bill Shorten employing the deplorable argument that if we debate the issue of same-sex marriage in public, gay people will kill themselves. This is the ultimate in emotional blackmail, and is not worthy of a response.
It is worth examining, however, the second of the two major arguments employed against the plebiscite: that it would be a waste of money:
Given that “Australia went from 4 per cent of GDP in the black to 10 per cent in the red in the space of four years under Labor rule“; considering that Australia has a current national government debt of $469 billion; and considering that the Labor Party hamstrung budget repair, and has recently been dragged kicking and screaming to approve a mere $6 billion of savings (despite its attempts to make it look like it was its idea.)
If the government wants to save money, The XYZ has a proposal of its own.
The Labor Party has zero credibility on the issue of debt, deficit, or saving or wasting money. Simply put, the Labor Party is happy to sell our children’s future, but only on its own terms.