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December 11th, 2011 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda A NEW poll shows an overwhelming majority believes all MPs should be given a conscience vote on same-sex marriage, just as Tony Abbott all but ruled the option out for the Coalition.
He also warned his MPs yesterday against crossing the floor to support gay marriage in defiance of party policy.
The latest Herald/Nielsen poll shows while support for same-sex marriage has slipped over the past month, 81 per cent of voters believe MPs should vote according to their conscience rather than along party lines.
The poll of 1400 voters was taken from Thursday night to Saturday night, just days after the ALP national conference.
At that conference, Labor also changed its policy to allow uranium sales to India, which refuses to sign the Nuclear-Non Proliferation Treaty.
That policy switch was given the thumbs down by voters, with 57 per cent opposed and 32 per cent in favour. The debate on same-sex marriage dominated the conference. Labor delegates voted overwhelmingly to change party policy from opposing gay marriage to supporting it.
But in line with orders from Julia Gillard, who opposes gay marriage, the conference agreed to grant MPs a conscience vote in Parliament.
The poll showed support for gay marriage had fallen five percentage points to 57 per cent since the last poll a month ago, before the conference.
Support among Labor and Greens voters stayed steady but fell seven points to 43 per cent among Coalition voters.
”It is likely that, at least for some voters, same-sex marriage became more closely associated with Labor because of the conference and, therefore, a negative,” said the Nielsen poll director, John Stirton.
Next year Labor backbencher Stephen Jones will introduce a private members bill proposing to legalise same-sex marriage. Without both major parties supporting a conscience vote, it stands no chance of passing.
Several in the Coalition, including Malcolm Turnbull, have called for Mr Abbott to allow a conscience vote.
Without a conscience vote, Coalition MPs are still allowed to cross the floor without risk of expulsion, but shadow ministers must resign from the frontbench.
Mr Abbott was open to the idea a week ago, saying the position would be worked through the usual processes of the shadow cabinet and the party room.
But with shadow cabinet to meet today, Mr Abbott killed off any prospect of a conscience vote and made it plain he would not approve of people crossing the floor, even though it is their right.
He told Sky News the Coalition promised before the last election to continue to oppose gay marriage and all his MPs should remember that, regardless of their personal views.
”We won’t finalise a position until it goes before the party room in the new year but I think the decisive consideration here is the position that we took to the election,” he said.
The election promise ”has got to be an extremely powerful factor with every single member of my Coalition”, he said. ”I know that in their heart of hearts there would probably be a few of my members who would prefer it to be otherwise but that was the commitment that every single one of us took to the last election.”
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