The same-sex marriage plebiscite was effectively canned when the ALP (with The Greens, Senator Hinch and the three NXT senators) decided not to vote for it. Thus, the Government does not have enough support in the Senate to get the enabling bill passed; so end of plebiscite. The final vote on the bill, defeated 29-33, was taken in the Senate on 7 November after further debate in the upper house. However, it was an educative exercise for republicans to see how legislation for a contemporary plebiscite would be framed. Attention now turns to the politically troubled, extremely complex and contentious Constitutional amendment on Indigenous recognition, with the Republic lagging a fair way behind, even further than recognition of local government in the Constitution. Things are getting a bit jittery about “the people’s choices” after the Brexit result and with the possibility of a US presidential election debacle now imminent.
Woman for an Australian Republic, Adelaide Ironside, republican poet and artist 1831-1867
Self portrait 1855, Newcastle Art Gallery NSW
