PM hit by right-wing MPs angered by SSM result, and ready to...

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    PM hit by right-wing MPs angered by SSM result, and ready to punish him

    THE fallout from Australia’s Yes vote on same-sex marriage is landing squarely at the feet of the Prime Minister.


    HARD-RIGHT members of Parliament have taken their walloping in the same-sex marriage survey personally and are responding with political tantrums.
    That is one explanation for a growing number of examples of toys being thrown from the cot by cranky MPs and senators who often describe themselves as “conservatives”.
    The cost to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull could be an embarrassing loss of control over the high-profile marriage equality legislation, and the imposition of a hugely disruptive banking commission of inquiry.
    And the Prime Minister’s reply, revealed today, was to postpone the restart the House of Representatives to December 4 rather than the scheduled November 27, and to keep it there until the SSM bill is dealt with.
    This is aimed at overcoming delaying tactics by right wingers in the Senate hoping to run down the clock on 2017 sittings and prevent the law change being legislated this year, as the Prime Minister has promised.

    He is taking a stand, a necessary one. That is a measure of the trouble he is in from his Coalition right.
    All this at a time when the Coalition government is most vulnerable, with two by-elections underway and the prospect of more early next year should the citizenship shambles roll on.
    The fury of the right’s counter has confirmed views the SSM debate was for them merely a single battle in the broad ideological war with the Coalition moderates, and the Prime Minister in particular.

    Laws covering marriage were a secondary matter. One hard right commentator mockingly describes the SSM issue as a “screaming, bleeding injustice” cultivated by the left.

    Banking industry spokeswoman Anna Bligh described the right’s fury against her sector as “seeking revenge by this group for senators for the fact that they didn’t get their way in the same-sex marriage debate”.

    “That’s an extraordinary way to make public policy,” she told ABC radio today.
    Of course, Ms Bligh would say that as part of her effort to thwart a banking inquiry, but there have been instances supporting her interpretation.
    First to eject playthings in irritation was former Liberal Cory Bernardi, now leader of Australian Conservatives, who the day after the SSM survey outcome was announced launched a string of mischief motions in the Senate.
    They covered, in part, abortion funding, gender theories and GetUp! and were intended to be rallying points for humiliated fellow travellers from Coalition parties and One Nation.
    Senators such as Matt Canavan, Eric Abetz and Barry O’Sullivan, along with all of the One Nation group, dutifully formed a line behind the Bernardi banner.
    More serious is the move by Senator O’Sullivan to follow the example of the private member’s bill for SSM marriage and introduce one for a banking inquiry.

    This push not only identifies a Right vs. Moderates split. It is further evidence of the dissatisfaction of Nationals with their role in the Coalition.
    “We have been loyal members to the Coalition but now we have to look after the National Party so we are there in the future,” he said.
    And he made the interesting point: “If it’s good enough for conservative governments to have royal commissions into trade unions, pink batts and detention centres then it is good enough to have one for the banks as they are more corrupt than the unions and on a scale much bigger.”
    Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has jumped aboard the bank bandwagon and today said Labor was the best chance to get an inquiry underway. It was an invitation for Malcolm Turnbull’s troops to cross the floor when and if a bill comes forward.

    http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/ga...m/news-story/d92d394540e64f07cb60265e1563e39a
 
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