CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
While exhausting all options left to find ways to avoid legalising gay marriage, Tony Abbott has said a postal vote might work but a plebiscite could be better, while talking out of school on 2GB with Ray Hadley.
Mr Abbott said he would argue in the party room Monday that while a non-compulsory postal ballot was “better than a free vote”, there were questions “about how authoritive it would be”.
“There has to be a plebiscite,” he said.
In an interview with 2GB’s Ray Hadley, Abbott issued a warning against a postal vote on same-sex marriage as the coalition was urged to “grow a pair” on the controversial issue.
The devout Catholic, upper North Shore public servant said giving Australians a say on gay marriage via the post might be a better alternative to a parliamentary vote, as he holds concerns that not every elected official is as keen on oppressing the LGBTI community as he is.
But the former prime minister queried how much real authority a postal plebiscite would have – stating that he was worried that his niche community of religiously homophobic child abuse apologists might not be as well represented in a nation-wide vote.
“I just worry that conservative Manly Sea Eagles scarf-wearing old property owners won’t get a big enough say on the issue” he said
“But if, ultimately, ahh, the majority of the nation supports gay marriage, then ahhh, I’ll have to support it too”
“No homo”
No homo is a phrase used as slang at the end of a sentence to assert the statement spoken by the speaker had no intentional homosexual implications. The phrase is “added to a statement in order to rid them of a possible homosexual double-entendre” – Most commonly used by males, it is, “a way of flagging one’s straight status and claiming its privilege”. It is a form of “identity construction in discourse via societal legitimization” for heterosexual males and a mechanism for which to distance oneself from any notion of homosexual intent.
After specifying how straight he was, Mr Abbott referenced secretly recorded comments Mr Pyne made to a factional gathering a month ago in which he said a resolution to same sex marriage was not far off.
“Plainly there has been talk behind the scenes by the same-sex marriage lobby for some time” Mr Abbott said.
“Christopher Pyne was a key part of that.”
