As conservative Coalition MPs and senators rallied around the same-sex marriage bill released on Monday by Liberal senator James Paterson, Turnbull slapped them down ahead of the release of marriage law survey results at 10am on Wednesday. Turnbull’s intervention contrasted with calls from Tony Abbott to do more to protect religious freedom than the Dean Smith marriage bill and “entrench the right to dissent from any new orthodoxy”. Read moreThe Paterson bill has been criticised by lawyers, marriage equality advocates and the attorney general, George Brandis, for allowing discrimination against same-sex weddings by commercial service providers. It is co-signed by four Liberal supporters of marriage equality, enjoys support from Labor and qualified support from the Greens, who intend to seek amendments. The Liberal senator David Fawcett said Paterson’s bill “reflects more fully” than the Smith bill the recommendations of the Senate committee inquiry into same-sex marriage that he chaired.

Source: The Guardian November 14, 2017 04:12 UTC