Topics: Same sex marriage plebiscite

E&OE … 

TOM ELLIOTT:

Joining us on the line today is Special Minister of State Senator Scott Ryan. Senator, good afternoon.

 

SENATOR SCOTT RYAN:

Good afternoon Tom.

 

ELLIOTT:

Ok so the plebiscite is set for February the 11th 2017, correct?
SENATOR RYAN:

That’s in the legislation we’ve put to Parliament and we hope we this will pass the House of Representatives and the Senate.

 

ELLIOTT:

Will it be compulsory for people to vote in it?

 

SENATOR RYAN:

It will be a compulsory vote. In terms of the voter experience it will be like every other election or referendum. There will be postal votes, pre-poll votes, absentee votes to make it easy to get to your polling booth and cast your ballot

 

ELLIOTT:

But if people don’t vote and they are on the roll, will they be fined?

 

SENATOR RYAN:

They will be

 

ELLIOTT:

Oh ok. Now in referendums, or referenda I suppose, you have to have both a majority of the people and a majority of the states for it to be held as a binding referendum. Will you do the same thing with this plebiscite?

 

SENATOR RYAN:

No. The plebiscite result will be determined by a simple national majority of Yes votes versus No votes. So if there are more Yes than No, Yes wins and if there are more Nos than Yes then No wins. The referendum requirement that you mentioned is for a formal change of the constitution, which is not necessary in this case.

 

ELLIOTT:

Will you regard your fellow MPs as being bound by the plebiscite?

 

SENATOR RYAN:

I will reflect the result of the plebiscite in my own vote. The overwhelming majority of my Coalition colleagues have made the same point clear, either publically or to me in private conversations. And so, it is clear that if the plebiscite is carried, the bill to amend the Marriage Act will sail through Parliament

 

ELLIOTT:

Ok. Now speaking of it sailing through Parliament or not, about 45 minutes ago I spoke to Richard Di Natale, leader of the Greens,  he has said that the Greens Senators will vote against this legislation, which pretty much means that given Nick Xenophon will vote against it, Derryn Hinch has said he will vote against it, you probably need the Labor Party to support it in the upper house, is that going to happen?

 

SENATOR RYAN:

Well I hope so Tom. I mean the Greens will always play to a fringe, but Bill Shorten, who said he didn’t have a problem with the plebiscite a few years ago, we have had a clear policy on this, we took it to an election, it was quite prominent in the election and over the last 12 months. And we believe that this is an issue that the Australian people can resolve quickly, with a ballot and Parliament can reflect that one way or another.

 

ELLIOTT:

But do you think that Bill Shorten will do you a favour and vote for it?

 

SENATOR RYAN:

Well I’m not going to guess what the Labor Party will end up doing. I hope they do. I wouldn’t describe it as doing me a favour, I would say it is respecting the right of the Australian people to make this decision.

 

ELLIOTT:

Now you budgeted $170 million to run this plebiscite, does that include the $15 million to get spent on advertising both the Yes and the No cases?

 

SENATOR RYAN:

It does. And I might say that there is a reason for that and people who, many of your listeners, would remember the old referendum process where you’d get a booklet in the mail from the AEC, the electoral commission…

 

ELLIOTT:

…I remember that well…

 

SENATOR RYAN

…setting out the Yes and the No case, to do that to every voter or, to even every household, will cost more than the public funding for this Yes and No campaign and I think it’s fair to say that a booklet mailed out doesn’t have the same impact that it might have had 20 years ago with the republic referendum.

 

ELLIOTT:

So you won’t be sending a booklet out?

 

SENATOR RYAN:

No, there will just be the AEC sending out information as to how to vote, but there won’t be a Yes or No booklet mailed to every voter like there was in ’99.

 

ELLIOTT:

So what will Yes and No committees do?

 

SENATOR RYAN:

The national Yes and No advertising committee will be able to use the money that it is granted by the Commonwealth for specific purposes and it’s mainly related to advertising and the necessary costs with that and this reflects exactly what happened in 1999 with the republic referendum.

 

ELLIOTT:

Ok and just on the committee, I know that each committee of 10 people will be five politicians and five members of the public. Of the politicians on each side, you will have two members of the Government, two members of the Opposition and one crossbencher. On the No side, will you pick politicians who are against gay marriage? I mean will they be there because their personal beliefs from the issue?

 

SENATOR RYAN:

Oh yes we will draw, the Attorney General and myself, will make the appointments, as was done in 1999, and we will appoint people to the committees that respect their advocacy and their view on the issue.

 

ELLIOTT:

So will Cory Bernardi, for example, be asked to go on the No committee?

 

SENATOR RYAN:

Well I have no idea if Cory would have an interest …

 

ELLIOTT:

Oh I think he would, he has a lot to say about it.

 

SENATOR RYAN:

Well I’ve served with Cory a long time. I regard him as a friend, we disagree on a lot of things, but I do regard him as a friend. We will call for expressions of interest from the public and among Members of Parliament, and then the Attorney General and myself will make a decision.

 

ELLIOTT:

So you and George Brandis, the Attorney General, will choose the five members of the public, the five politicians?

 

SENATOR RYAN:

Yes.

 

ELLIOTT:

What sort of people will you look for?

 

SENATOR RYAN:

Well again, in 1999, the choice was made to choose people who had long history of advocacy on one side of the republic debate or not. I think that’s as good as principle as any, to see, to ensure that this underpins a fair and transparent campaign.

 

ELLIOTT:

Ok.

 

SENATOR RYAN:

And what we’ve announced basically ensures that there is guaranteed fairness for both sides.

 

ELLIOTT:

Ok, so basically, the AEC will spend $155 million managing the plebiscite and that will include some type of advertising about when to vote and where to vote and all that sort of thing?

 

SENATOR RYAN:

Yep.

 

ELLIOTT:

The two committees will spend $7.5 million each advocating their case, either Yes or No, can groups like churches if they want to could they run their own advertising on the issue?

 

SENATOR RYAN:

Absolutely.

 

ELLIOTT:

Right ok. Another thing I have noticed is a rumour in the press today, I think it’s in the Herald Sun and on a couple of websites, that TV stations will actually be forced to run both lots of ads, both the Yes and the No campaign. Is that true?

 

SENATOR RYAN:

So there is a provision to explain this in the Broadcasting Services Act that applies to elections, that says if you are run ads for one [side], you’ve got to give the opportunity for the ads for another side to be run as well and as part of our approach to make sure this is the same as every other election or referendum, we are going to seek to apply that to television and radio stations for this plebiscite.

 

ELLIOTT:

Ok, but see I have a problem with that because for example I sometimes read out ads on this station. Now my contract says that I can reject any ad I want. I cannot be forced to do an ad for which I disagree, I can’t read out ads on both sides of the debate, I have to pick the side that I support, this is my view.

 

SENATOR RYAN:

And you wouldn’t be required to

 

ELLIOTT:

But you just said that I would be required to?

 

SENATOR RYAN:

This issue that will be examined in detail I presume, I would expect would be at a Senate committee inquiry, applies to 3AW in this case, it doesn’t apply to you personally.

 

ELLIOTT:

Ok so 3AW would have to run ads on both sides of the debate?

 

SENATOR RYAN:

Well if you run ads for one side, you can’t, on principle, say that I’m not going to run ads for the other side.

 

ELLIOTT:

Ok and are you sure, you are confident you will get this through the upper house? Because I’ve spoken to a number of Senators on the issue and I can tell you the numbers don’t look good?

SENATOR RYAN:

Well we took the promise to an election and we are going to make every attempt and every best endeavour to legislate this plebiscite because I think it was a very clear promise and I think it is the clearest and quickest path to resolve this issue. It is an issue of quite substantial public interest and I think it is entirely reasonable to let the public make the decision on this.

 

ELLIOTT:

Final question, why did you pick February the 11th as the date for the plebiscite?

 

SENATOR RYAN:

We said we would do it as soon as practical after the election. About three or four weeks ago, the electoral commissioner advised me, well strongly advised me not to try and do it this year, the need for a passage of legislation further complicated that and this is the first available option to do it next year.

 

ELLIOTT:

Right, so February 11th 2017 is the earliest you can practically …

 

SENATOR RYAN:

Yes.

 

ELLIOTT:

The earliest it can practically happen?

 

SENATOR RYAN:

Yes.

 

ELLIOTT:

Senator Scott Ryan thank you for your time

 

SENATOR RYAN:

Thanks Tom.

 

(ENDS)