- Published on
By Catherine Watson
MCMILLAN Liberal MP Russell Broadbent will not be voting to legalise same-sex marriage despite overwhelming support for marriage equality within the McMillan electorate.
MCMILLAN Liberal MP Russell Broadbent will not be voting to legalise same-sex marriage despite overwhelming support for marriage equality within the McMillan electorate.
Mr Broadbent did not return calls from the Post but his spokesman said he would vote against the bill or abstain.
His decision puts him at odds with most of his electorate, with 62.7 per cent of those who responded to the postal survey supporting marriage equality, while 37.3 per cent opposed it.
In an interview with ABC Gippsland on Thursday, Mr Broadbent said his views on same-sex marriage had never been a secret.
Asked whether he was failing to represent the views of the majority of his electorate, he said he was one of 36,500 McMillan electors who had voted no. “I have a long-standing position on this. I believe I can also represent the 36,500 that voted no.”
But Mr Broadbent said he would not be “obstructionist”. “There are some trying to wind back anti-discrimination laws. That’s an impossible situation. We have very strong anti-discrimination laws in this country and they cannot be amended by any change in this legislation.”
Support for marriage equality was even higher in Bass Coast’s other federal electorate, Flinders, where 70 per cent of respondents voted yes and 30 per cent no.
Flinders Liberal MP Greg Hunt welcomed the result. “I was one of those who voted yes and I will be one who supports the bill in Parliament in line with my own beliefs, the majority view of my electorate and the majority view of the country.”
Mr Hunt said he understood that not every member of the Flinders electorate supported marriage equality and the Government would ensure recognition of religious freedom within the bill.
An overwhelming number of MPs in both houses have said they will support a bill to introduce marriage equality with appropriate safeguards for religious freedom.
Bass Coast Mayor Pamela Rothfield also welcomed the strong support for marriage equality within the Bass Coast Shire.
Speaking at a council meeting just hours after the results were announced, she said, “I’m so proud to be part of a community and council that supports equality. There are a lot of very happy people around our community today.”
The Cape Paterson tavern was the scene of rainbow revelry on Wednesday night as the local LGBTI community and many friends and supporters celebrated overwhelming public support for marriage equality.
His decision puts him at odds with most of his electorate, with 62.7 per cent of those who responded to the postal survey supporting marriage equality, while 37.3 per cent opposed it.
In an interview with ABC Gippsland on Thursday, Mr Broadbent said his views on same-sex marriage had never been a secret.
Asked whether he was failing to represent the views of the majority of his electorate, he said he was one of 36,500 McMillan electors who had voted no. “I have a long-standing position on this. I believe I can also represent the 36,500 that voted no.”
But Mr Broadbent said he would not be “obstructionist”. “There are some trying to wind back anti-discrimination laws. That’s an impossible situation. We have very strong anti-discrimination laws in this country and they cannot be amended by any change in this legislation.”
Support for marriage equality was even higher in Bass Coast’s other federal electorate, Flinders, where 70 per cent of respondents voted yes and 30 per cent no.
Flinders Liberal MP Greg Hunt welcomed the result. “I was one of those who voted yes and I will be one who supports the bill in Parliament in line with my own beliefs, the majority view of my electorate and the majority view of the country.”
Mr Hunt said he understood that not every member of the Flinders electorate supported marriage equality and the Government would ensure recognition of religious freedom within the bill.
An overwhelming number of MPs in both houses have said they will support a bill to introduce marriage equality with appropriate safeguards for religious freedom.
Bass Coast Mayor Pamela Rothfield also welcomed the strong support for marriage equality within the Bass Coast Shire.
Speaking at a council meeting just hours after the results were announced, she said, “I’m so proud to be part of a community and council that supports equality. There are a lot of very happy people around our community today.”
The Cape Paterson tavern was the scene of rainbow revelry on Wednesday night as the local LGBTI community and many friends and supporters celebrated overwhelming public support for marriage equality.
Your people have voted.
Your people have said YES.
Your duty as their representative is to vote YES.
If you don't get that message - resign.
It is possible to hold a view that accepts homosexual relationships as a loving and joyous part of our society, and also consider marriage to be the union of a man and a woman.
I voted yes because I believe in equality.
I understand that you have a conscience vote on the SSM Bill and are not restricted to vote along party lines or how your electorate voted. I note that a number of NSW elected members have said they will support the bill even though the majority of their constitutants voted no.
We need to respect a persons right for a conscience vote because this is democracy.
What message would abstention send in a conscience vote? Wow.
Some party. Two members who represent different chunks of Bass Coast with opposing responses to similar data, cancel each other out.
$120 million for a void.
This is a void:( ). This one's free.
Some other party: Next time rainbow revelry reigns in Cape P extend the invitation, please. People in Flinders have more to celebrate, apparently.
Your use of the English language is beyond me. Please write in simple ways that we can all understand. You need to respect a conscience vote and what that means in a democratic society.
Comment decoded-
Cape Paterson residents live in McMillan and their representative is going to vote No or abstain which is essentially saying no but not owning it.
By accident I live in Flinders and my federal rep is going to vote YES so I have more to celebrate than if I lived in Cape Paterson as I voted YES.
If the vote was going to be based on the member's conscience why did they spend $120 mill to ask us what we thought only to ignore it? The connotative definition of a conscience vote in this context is equivalent to a 'free' vote ie not guided by party lines, rather than guided by their conscience. It's the collective conscience of the electorate that informs a conscience vote, not the bias of an individual.
The federal government did the same thing with the Uluru statement so at least they are consistently ignoring OUR views.
Cheers Mate.
The Australian electorate voted Yes in 133 electorates and no in 17 electorates. The majority of the No electorates are in NSW.
This is one of the most strongest endorsements of the importance of people’s equality there can be and sends a clear message to politicians in Canberra to pass the SSM Bill and quickly. I have no doubt the the bill will pass regardless of how Russell Broadbent votes.
I think Russell Broadbent as already said he will not be contesting the next election which is a good thing. This is an an opportunity to bring in some young progressive thinkers into the electorate.
Cheers.
Cheers
But we can't have it both ways. After all, in 2006 many of us applauded Russell Broadbent when he crossed the floor to vote against his own party’s immigration policy, which involved mandatory processing of asylum seekers off-shore. Only a minority of voters in his electorate would have supported his action then, but he voted according to his conscience.
So while I don't agree with Mr Broadbent's view on marriage equality, I do agree that he should vote according to his own conscience, not ours.
An acquaintance of mine said that Mr Broadbent should vote as electorate voted but didn't apply the same "logic" to Mr Jason Clare who has also decided to vote against his electorate. The only difference is that Mr Clare is going to vote Yes whereas his electorate of Blaxland voted No. It's a funny world, isn't it?
As you go to the polls for the Federal election just give a thought to the plebiscite that was forced upon us by the Liberal government in 2017. We were asked to vote Yes or No about Marriage Equality and the voters in Monash voted a strong NO! 62.7% of the electorate voted NO but when it came time to vote in parliament Russell Broadbent chose to ignore our wishes and voted NO on our behalf!
Now to put that into perspective only four politicians chose to vote No. Two of them were in Queensland electorates that had a very slight majority vote No in the plebiscite. The only politician, apart from Broadbent, to vote AGAINST his electorate was the LNP representative of Hinkley which voted 51% in favor of the Yes vote. The were ten Liberal or National representatives who abstained.
Broadbent claimed that he was representing the 37.3% who voted No! So, I ask, what was the point of our vote, that was forced upon us by Broadbent’s “team”? As soon as they chose to ask our opinion each “representative” then had the responsibility to vote the way we directed them to vote.
This was a huge slap in the face for the voters of Monash. Broadbent doesn’t represent us at all. He just sits in comfort for two and a half years and then comes down our way when he needs our vote and throws some insignificant cheques around. It’s time we elected someone who will represent us – let him know what you think by putting Broadbent LAST on the ballot in this election.