Normally I rate Penny Wong and good for her that she's happy that SSM got up BUT when Gillard was against SSM (a politically expedient position I believe) Wong sat there with a straight face on Lateline, the 7:30 Report and in the papers defending the governments position.

That made me feel just a tad ill at the time and watching her in tears the other night.

rusty bout to go nuclear?

-PB

There is no greater irony than all the lefties opposing the plebiscite now celebrating the outcome of it.  No greater irony.

I think the "opposition" was that politicians needed to "man" up and just make it happen. Polls indicated that there was strong support to it (which the plebiscite confirmed), so the issue was that this whole exercise was a $100M waste of tax payers money.

The only reason Turnbull ran the plebiscite was to "win" over his own party, Labor already had run with the policy at the last election so voters knew their position. Turnbull as leader was supportive, but he couldn't get his own party on board ... without spending $100M to prove that the polls weren't "fake news"!

Labor had between 2007 and 2013 to "man up" and legislate SSM.  The fact is the parliament failed the SSM vote multiple times and Labor would not force Labor MPs who opposed SSM to vote against their conscience until 2019.  Turnbull took the vote out of the parliaments hands and gave it to the public in order to garner support for the bill from conservatives within his party.  The fact is the Liberals succeeded where Rudd, Gillard, Labor and the left failed.

Well they haven't succeeded yet. They've only succeeded in having a poll so far.

So you will admit they succeeded when the actually legislate it?

lol ALP opposed it because it should have simply been sorted in parliament.

They had to spend 100+ mil in order for Malcolm to convince his conservative parts of his party to vote with the will of the people rather than just their own beliefs.

Finding it very ironic that you're managing to champion this outcome as some kind of success brought to the Australian people courtesy of LNP Inc.

-PB

I hope we get an election, I want nothing more than to vote the libs the f out.

Still don't give a fuck about this gay shit. Fix public transport and interwebs you twats.

Public transport is a state government issue.

It will be a great success for the rights of Australian when we legally recognise marriage equality.

LOL if the APL opposed the vote because they believed so strongly it should have been sorted in parliament, then why didn't they sort it in parliament?  They had government for six years and couldn't sort it out in parliament, so it's a bit hypocritical of them to suggest parliament should sort it out when they failed so many times.  The real reason they opposed it was because a) they didn't trust the public and b) it was't their idea and c) naughty liberals aren't allowed to have any say in social policy.  

And please stop pretending $100 million is some kind of major waste.  We spend $100 million per week financial Labor's debt, but the lefties don't give a shit about that debt, it's all just a "drop in the ocean".  Can you imagine if Labor proposed the plebiscite, you would get all of these insufferable lefty organisations like PwC and ABC commissioning all their studies to measure the 'return on investment' like increased gay tourism, less suicide, happiness and inclusiveness dividend etc.  

So if the Labor party now blocked the bill would that be a "defeat" to the Liberal party?? There has only been one major party in Australia who has been responsible for ensuring that marriage equality hasn't occurred already. I'll give you a hint ... they forced their members to vote 'No' in the three bills previously voted in Parliament.

They opposed it because they knew it would fail in the Parliament. Just like the LNP doing this horsehit survey was their way of circumventing the will of the Senate as well.

The difference is now is an MP going against the will of their electorate will now be plainly obvious, something that wouldn't have happened in the past if it were just a free vote.

You keep up with the victim mentality like "naught liberals" etc, you are literally becoming the snowflake that conservatives always like to rag on about the left.

While you're on such a sweet back patting streak at the moment go on about how good the Libs are smashing penalty rates, the botched Union witch hunt and senator Cash, the refugee cockup in Naru (which is probably going to be sorted by NZ much to the international embarrassment of this country), the citizenship dramas on that side of the aisle, the complete fucking annihilation of the NBN.

Could go on and on, but I guess pointing out the bad things that the incumbent Government has done might trigger you into some more e-tears on a football forum.

-PB

I've already heard countless times how its a "low-income redneck" element that contributed to the low 'yes' numbers in Western Sydney. In some electorates, I don't doubt this is accurate. 

But seriously, I challenge anyone to keep a straight face and suggest that anything other than 99-100% of practicing muslims voted no. That is going to have a huge impact. 

Fo shiz?  You seriously think parliament will scuttle SSM?  Is that what you lefties keep telling yourselves so you don't have to confront the fact you failed gays?  I wonder, do you secretly hope the bills falls through?  I'm sure many of your ilk do, they would rather the conservatives betray the electorate and use it as fodder to kick the libs out of government, than see the bill pass and allow gays to marry.  Then Labor can come in and save the day and claim all the credit for kudos for legislating SSM.   It's all politics at the end of the day, the desire to smash the enemy trumps doing the right thing morally.  It's the same with refugees, when someone on Manus dies it's all crocodile tears, howls of condemantion and candlelight vigils, but when a boatload full of kids sinks you just shrug your shoulders.  

:lol: rusty has lost his damn  mind 

I'm not referring to SSM now, I'm referring to it when it could have just been a private members bill. 

And stop with the identity politics horseshit, "you failed the gays", "your ilk". Makes you incredibly unintelligent. 

-PB

Fuck me, this level of political tribalism is a cancer. 

Corey bernadi “we need to know how far and deep this peneration has been” :lol:

lol Corey Bernardi just has to be the smartest Australian politician out there at the moment.

He hits the nail on the head all the time, trying to find out how deeply our National Security has been penetrated! lol

Tbh I prefer my politicians when they're not making childish jokes and are actually doing things that help people. But whatever floats your boat.

And Corey Bernardi is doing just that my friend - by giving people like myself a solid alternative. I don't like Pauline Hanson because I think she could be genuinely racist. However, Corey isn't a racist, but a true conservative for us who have traditional religious and family values.

We use to have a home in the Liberal Party but the Young Liberals and Pine has made that party Socialists and all over the place so we need Corey and we love him because he is the rare politician who is actually forthright, stands up straight and tells it the way he believes it and not for the votes, and is a conviction leader. He is a real Man. His social media isn't mysteriously hacked and he doesn't watch porn at 2AM in the morning (not that there is anything wrong with that...).

We should be very happy that there are still men of his ilk in Parliament, fighting the good fight.

I've seen the left-faction takeover of liberal party as a positive really, but as you say, it's definitely been alienating to social conservative 'family values' voters. I may not like Corey - because I believe in abortion, gender and sexual fluidity etc - But yeah i'm very glad classic conservatives who aren't racists have someone to vote for that isn't Hanson. Thats definitely a positive. 

How large of a following does Australian Conservatives have? Do you think they might pick up a few more seats at the next election, or will he be a bit of a one man team for a while yet? I'ts been a very interesting development.

Yes I describe myself as a social conservative. And what I mean by that is that I do not agree with things like abortion, ssm, gender fluidity, safe schools, euthanasia and so on, but a racist I like to think I am not which is why Hanson isn't an option. I am Ethnic myself so find Hanson quite confronting actually.

But Australian Conservatives is ok for someone like me as they seem to stand up for similar type social and family values that I believe in without being offensive about it because its not about offending people or mistreating them either.

I am not sure how Corey will do. I predict he should do quite well, plus he is a lot more intelligent and more astute than Hanson and your average politician. Corey knows how to handle himself and he speaks a lot of sense too and isn't being ridiculous about things like Xenophon and Hanson can be. He should outlive Hanson, and I think he will take a lot of votes away from the LNP. In fact, I think Corey is a fairly mainstream type politician. He is just religious (Catholic) and hence has those types of social values which is fine by me.

The LNP in my opinion has made a terrible mistake in forsaking its traditional heartland supporter bases which are now leaving for Hanson and Corey Bernardi. The LNP is now probably even a lot more left than the ALP Governments of Hawke and Keating (which were quite sensible), whilst the ALP of today is probably bordering on towards extreme Socialism or even Communism and identity politics, in order to placate the Greens and get their preferences, which is not healthy for this country.

It use to be an unwritten rule that the ALP was just slightly left of center and the Liberals were slightly right of center. Now no one knows where they stand with either the ALP or Liberals. Landscape has changed a lot, and not for the better either.

What I am really looking for is a slightly right of center party with some slightl;y conservative type values. The Liberals are not providing this anymore as they are left of center which leaves us with Corey I guess. Without Corey, I might as well cast a Donkey vote.

For once I actually agree with you. 40% of like 18 million people voted no, that's a lot of people he can target.

One of the ironic things I've seen as a result of this poll has been the shit slinging at those who voted no even after the fact. It's ironic given the huge concerns there were over the potential mental issues associated with a protracted plebiscite within minority groups. 

I initially had the same opinion but I really think she is genuine in her emotion. I bet it would have been immensely difficult to defend the Labor party's position on SSM when Gillard was in power. The Labor party frown down on individual expression and everyone has to toe the party line. I imagine Penny would have been under an immense amount of stress during the Gillard term.

What was Gillard's issue with SSM anyway? She's an atheist. 

Yep.  That made it worse.