Marriage Equality is unlikely to win Labor any new votes in Western Sydney marginal electorates but exclusive polling has revealed voters in the Liberal heartland of Bennelong are supportive of same-sex marriage laws.
While Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has committed to introducing a bill within 100 days if he wins government, and allowing Labor MPs a conscience vote, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has been resistant. He previously refused a conscience vote for Coalition MPs – seen as the only way such a law could pass – and now says a party-room debate would decide the matter.
ReachTel polling commissioned by Fairfax shows 47 per cent of voters in John Howard’s old seat of Bennelong support same-sex marriage laws, with support strongest in the 35- to 50-year age group, and 40 per cent of voters in Bennelong opposed them.
In Labor-held Kingsford Smith, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, 52 per cent of voters support same-sex marriage laws, while a third oppose them.
Half of voters (51 per cent) in the western Sydney marginal seat of Blaxland, held by Labor’s Jason Clare, opposed same-sex marriage laws, a third supported them, while 16 per cent were undecided. In McMahon, held by treasurer Chris Bowen, 45 per cent oppose, 37 per cent support, and a large slice, 18 per cent, are undecided.
Author: Kirsty Needham
Publication: WAtoday.com.au
Date: 18 August 2013