Cabinet minister Simon Birmingham is pouring cold water on an "alternative" bill on same sex marriage that a group of conservatives hope to put forth to compete with the one Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull favors.

The social conservatives hope to include stricter religious protections.  But Senator Birmingham said, "It would be illogical and inconsistent with past practice for those who oppose change to seek to be the authors of a bill for that change."

That Is Entirely Illogical

The Australian Bureau of Statistics' chief statistician will announce the results of the postal survey on legalizing Same Sex Marriage at 10:00 AM on 15 November 2017 in Canberra.  It will then be published on the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey website.  If, as expected, "Yes" carries the day then Mr. Birmingham is confirming that the government prefers to use West Australian senator Dean Smith's bill as the starting point for legalizing marriage equality.

"If there is a Yes vote, we should debate the Smith bill, get it passed in one form or another and see the matter settled this year," Senator Birmingham told the ABC.  "Of course though, every single member of Parliament, in what will be a free vote that occurs in debate around same-sex marriage, will be entitled to put forward whatever amendments they wish to put forward," he added.

The Smith bill allows same-sex couples to wed, while creating exemptions so religious organizations can refuse to conduct same-sex marriages.  This is the bill that Labor has agreed to support. sexomobi

"Let's be very clear, if the survey is a yes, Australians are not going to tolerate this group of MPs and senators blocking progress again," said Labor Senator Penny Wong.  "If the No case loses the survey, they need to get over it and they need to get out of the way."

It's Never Illogical To Be Fabulous