The government insists its door is still open for discussions about the marriage plebiscite despite a meeting between the coalition and the Labor party going nowhere yesterday.
Attorney General George Brandis and Special Minister of State Scott Ryan met with Labor’s Mark Dreyfus and Terri Butler yesterday to discuss the plebiscite but the meeting turned out to be a stalemate with neither side willing to suggest compromises let allow discuss them.
Despite the embarrassing breakdown in communication Scott Ryan told ABC radio this morning that the door was still open for further discussion.
“We’re saying to them again, if you’d like to put forward a proposal we will consider it in good faith,” Senator Ryan said.
‘We’ve put our proposal out there and it really is up to Labor to say, ‘Well, we would like this to change in order to support it’,’ Senator Ryan said.
‘We can’t guarantee we’ll agree but we’ll go through (negotiations) in good faith.’
The failure of the two parties to develop a dialogue over the issue has generated a range of responses from political commentators and politicians.
“With Bill Shorten & Mark Dreyfus scuttling plebiscite, the definition of marriage won’t be changed for foreseeable future. Thanks!”
Queensland MP George Christensen on Twitter
“We are not fools Sen. Brandis. A plebiscite is an illusion of democracy, a device of the hard Right, an impediment to civil rights”
Professor Kerryn Phelps on Twitter
“I think they know in their hearts of hearts when people start thinking about changing our foundational institution, which is all about the socialisation of the next generation, it all about what’s best for children, then people may well say the glib lines of ‘love is love’ and ‘marriage equality’ sounds good on the face of it, but there are a lot of consequences that follow which we aren’t happy with, as a result I think there will be a NO vote.”
Senator Eric Abetz on SKY News
“By my count on some nine occasions I said to the ‘what do you want?’ I’m disappointing that on every occasion when I asked Mr Dreyfus and Miss Butler to state what the Labor party’s position was they refused to do so.”
Attorney General George Brandis
“The Attorney General did not suggest anything that the government is prepared to change.”
Shadow Attorney General Mark Dreyfus
“Labor have had now 10 days to look at that legislation in detail and if they can’t turn up to the meeting and demonstrate there are things they would like negotiate on and put them to the government then you’ve got to see this for what it is, absolute rank politics.”
Former Chief of Staff to Tony Abbott, Peta Credlin on The Bolt Report
“I think the one thing missing from the tone [of the debate] is that no one is talking about marriage equality anymore. We’re talking about political processes, political parties and we’re missing what this is about. It’s about lesbian and gay people who are in almost every family, the people who live on our street, the people we work with and whether those people should be entitled to the same dignity and status for their relationship as everyone else in their families.”Â
Tiernan Brady from Australians 4 Equality on the ABC’s Lateline
“I’ve lived in Australia all my life, and I’m very confident in the Australian people, confident that we’re able to have a mature conversation and debate in an open and transparent way. This is a significant change in the historical societal make up of Australia, and I don’t believe that the Australian politicians should have a say I believe it should be in the hands of the Australian people.
David Littleproud, MP on the ABC’s Lateline
“The government took a position to an election and we said to the people in July ‘In the next parliament we plan to proceed with this issue and they way we propose to proceed with it is by a plebiscite.’ The public endorsed that position. What we are doing is seeking to deal with the issue in the way that the public gave us a mandate to do at the election.”
Senator George Brandis on ABC’s 7:30
“The reality is that there was a mandate and the mandate comes from the lower house. The government got re-elected, it may have only been narrowly but they have a mandate for a plebiscite. I think its a pretty stupid idea, its a waste of money but that is the way the system operates.”
Peter Beattie on Viewpoint with Chris Kenny
“I think it’s incumbent on both sides to keep trying, I think like a lot of Australians I’m feeling quietly enraged by this Punch and Judy show over same sex marriage.”
“Turnbull did take this to an election, he won the election and I think its incumbent on both sides to make some more serious efforts to find compromise.”Â
Deborah Snow, Senior Writer – Sydney Morning Herald on The Drum
“I don’t think it’s a care of putting it in the two hard basket. I think it’s acknowledging that you can’t polish a turd. Here’s a fundamentally wrong headed approach to solving a complicated issue for sure, it’s fundamentally the wrong way to handle it.”
Sam Crosby, Executive Director – The McKell Institute on The Drum
“There’s another simple solution, the federal government could get on with the business of passing the same sex marriage legislation.”
“There’s a lot of hate in the world, people want to celebrate their love and we want to deprive them of that. I mean, what on earth are we doing?”
Jay Weatherill, Premier of South of Australia on Q&A
“Senator Brandis has to explain and guarantee that no one will suffer any harm because of the hate speech in this debate. How does he explain and justify the wasting of $200 million dollars.”
Labor Leader Bill Shorten
“Its really up to the Labor party to tell us what they propose.”Â
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull
“It [marriage equality] is not going to happen in the foreseeable future because Labor is continuing to play politics on this issue, as they did in the six years where they were in power from 2007, where they could have passed this legislation if they were really interested in passing this legislation.”
Christine Forster on Viewpoint with Chris Kenny
