Why have just one plebiscite when we could have three?
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The government's national vote on same-sex marriage may have been rejected by the Senate late on Monday, but a group of crossbench senators believe the door could be opened to a series of plebiscites on hot button social issues.
Senate crossbenchers Jacqui Lambie and Pauline Hanson want three plebiscite questions to be put to Australian voters at the next federal election, on same-sex marriage, Indigenous recognition in the constitution and voluntary euthanasia.
Senator Lambie told ABC radio she held talks with the One Nation leader, NSW senator Brian Burston and Ms Hanson's controversial staffer James Ashby over dinner on Monday night, ahead of a bill being introduced to the Senate in coming months.
The Senate killed off the government's planned plebiscite on same-sex marriage, voting 29-33 in a late-night vote.
Senator Lambie voted with the government, saying while she opposed same-sex marriage on religious grounds she would have respected the popular vote of the Tasmanian people after a national vote.
She blamed a lack of will for the $200 million plebiscite being blocked.
"We're talking now about putting a bill through so we have dates and we have times, so we can get this bill and take the vote at the next election and also looking at reconciliation and euthanasia for those that are terminally ill," she said.
"Let's give these people a peace of mind. Let's give them another direction and tell them when they can take the vote because they want to take this vote."
Any new plebiscite proposal would be unlikely to pass Parliament. Senator Hanson has previously advocated for a referendum on marriage, despite the constitution's silence on the issue.
Senator Lambie said Labor, the Greens, Nick Xenophon party senators and Derryn Hinch had killed off "people power" in blocking the planned February 11 plebiscite.
"I find that astonishing that we can't have referendums, that we can't have plebiscites in this country.
"We could have had this over and done with. As a matter of fact we could have taken this to the last election and had it on a separate piece of paper from the voting form and had this already done with.
"It's the lack of will that doesn't get things done up here in the Senate," Senator Lambie said.
A referendum on Indigenous recognition in the constitution is planned for 2017 but could be delayed as the government considers timing, the referendum question and the push for a formal treaty with Indigenous communities, being called for by some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders.
