The Marriage Equality Plebiscite Bill Has Failed

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The Coalition's marriage equality plebiscite bill is dead, having failed to pass through the Senate late Monday night. The controversial public vote, if it had been supported by parliament, would have been held on February 11, 2017. But none of this is really a surprise as the Labor Party indicated they wouldn't support the bill in early October.

The plebiscite bill, which passed through the House of Representatives in October, was defeated in the Senate 33 votes to 29. The Government were able to garner the Senate votes of David Leyonhjelm, Jacqui Lambie, and the One Nation Senators. Still, this wasn't enough—the Nick Zenophon Team, the Greens, and the ALP all voted against the plebiscite.

Marriage equality advocates won't be shedding many tears for the controversial plebiscite bill. It has been the subject of intense debate since well before this year's federal election, when the Coalition were elected on a slim majority after promising a marriage equality plebiscite vote as part of their platform.

Greens Senators Janet Rice and Richard Di Natale announced back in August that their party would vote against the plebiscite legislation, after consultation with the Australian LGBTQI community indicated a plebiscite campaign would do more harm than good.

When the bill was defeated last night, Senator Rice stated that parliament had "moved forward to equality."

"The Greens are proud to have stood with lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, and queer communities against this plebiscite and we recognise, share and draw strength from the determination of this community to achieve the equality everyone deserves," she said.

While a plebiscite might have forced politicians to finally acknowledge strong public support for same sex marriage in Australia, it would have done so at significant cost. The Coalition estimated that a plebiscite campaign and vote would cost the Australian public around $160 million, but an independent assessment by PricewaterhouseCoopers puts the number somewhere closer to $525 million.

Although it's widely cited that 70 percent of Australians support a plebiscite on marriage equality, a poll earlier this year found that once voters are informed of the costs, support drops to below half.

The mental health costs of a plebiscite campaign would also be potentially severe. In 2015, the Australian Psychological Society submitted a report to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee urging them to reconsider the plebiscite on these grounds.

While both cross benchers and the ALP will call for a free vote on the same sex marriage issue in parliament, the Coalition's majority in the House of Representatives makes such a vote unlikely to succeed.

So the plebiscite's failure is a bittersweet victory—no horribly divisive plebiscite campaign, but no marriage equality either.

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Image by Bodie Strain. Follow him on Instagram @pumpkinmook