New South Wales Labor Won't Force MPs to Vote For Marriage Equality

The New South Wales Labor Party, part of the national Australian Labor Party, has voted to changes it rules in support of same-sex marriage. However, delegates of the state conference where the change was made voted against a motion which would have called on federal members of parliament to vote in support of same-sex marriage.

Currently, the national Australian Labor Party platform is in support gay marriage. However, its members of parliament may vote based on their own views, rather than follow a party line. The defeated motion at the the NSW state conference would have called for the national ALP conference to take the “conscience vote” ability away from Labor parliamentarians.

The motion was was rejected 352 to 284, and New South Wales is one of the more liberal states in Australia. This makes it unlikely that even if Labor wins in the next election that the numbers will be available for the ALP to pass marriage equality, despite repeated claims by socialist left delegates that the issue is a matter of basic human rights.