Australia’s Turnbull government to delay same-sex marriage plebiscite until February

Aug 21, 2016 by Jill

By Lynette Eyb and Goya Dmytryshchak, Sydney Morning Herald:

The Turnbull government will push back the date of the proposed same-sex marriage plebiscite until February 2017, breaking a flagship pledge.

The Prime Minister had said he wanted the vote to be held this year.

However a spokesperson for Mr Turnbull told Fairfax Media that Special Minister of State, Scott Ryan, received advice last week from the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) advising the government to push the vote back.

“The government has always said that a decision on same-sex marriage will be made by a vote of all Australians in a national plebiscite to be held as soon as practicable,” the spokesperson said.

“That commitment has not changed. Late last week, the AEC provided advice to the Special Minister of State that strongly recommended against the conduct of a plebiscite this calendar year.”

News Corp reported on Saturday night that a timeline for the vote would now be announced in September and that the question expected to be asked is: “Do you approve of a law to permit people of the same sex to marry?”

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