Q: Want to know why the Greens party does not fear failure - why it does not fret about setting back a valued human rights cause indefinitely?
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Labor remains opposed to plebiscite
A vote in parliament, not a plebiscite, is the best way to legalise same-sex marriage, says Bill Shorten. Courtesy ABC News 24.
A: Because it has delivered up failure before and been applauded by an idealistic base that scores worthy intent over actual results.
Greens' ideological purity on the Rudd government's emissions trading scheme reached pathological proportions. Its all-or-nothing obstinacy helped along the unravelling of Canberra's cross-party political consensus on climate, the demise of Malcolm Turnbull and then Kevin Rudd, the rise of Coalition obscurantism, and eventually to the world-trailing climate architecture currently in place.
Similarly, the party's refusal to legislate the Gillard government's proposed Malaysian solution in 2011, saw that government's hands tied, the Abbott opposition resurgent, and an ongoing policy paralysis during which some 600 more people drowned trying to reach Australia by boat.
Yet Greens voters stuck with their feel-good choice.
Now their party's principled opposition to a same-sex marriage plebiscite has made it more likely the nationwide public vote will not go ahead. And the reform as well.
Labor too, seems poised to veto the enabling legislation after Bill Shorten described the Coalition's plebiscite plan as "ridiculous" and a $160 million opinion poll favoured by Turnbull to placate opponents on the right of his own party.
![Greens leader Richard Di Natale leads a party whose base scores worthy intent above actual results.](/web/20160827225206im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/p/o/g/0/5/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gr2755.png/1472219031911.jpg)
This is an absurd outcome especially considering that again, that rare pre-condition is present in Canberra. All three established party leaders favour marriage reform, yet furious partisan disagreement threatens progress.
The left is in a pickle. It refuses to accept Turnbull's plebiscite even though he has a direct mandate for it. That's right. He campaigned on it openly and won the election.
Not unreasonably, advocates of reform fear an acrimonious public campaign and worse, a negative result from the vote - despite boasting of 70 per cent support for change. This argument was decided by the election.
Besides, there is no denying the facts: from where they sit right now, the plebiscite is not merely the most direct route to overdue equality, it's the only one.
In all likelihood, that's the bargaining position Turnbull will adopt: back the vote or forget about progress this term.
Theories that Turnbull will simply switch to a free parliamentary vote if rebuffed on the plebiscite, display a thin understanding of his Faustian pact with conservatives.
In other words, they are a pipedream only a Greens supporter could buy.