Senator Louise Pratt calls on Canning MP Andrew Hastie to back ‘yes’ result

Labor Senator Louise Pratt drew on comments made by Mr Hastie in 2015 when he said he would be “obliged” to support same-sex marriage in parliament if the people of Canning voted ‘yes’ in a plebiscite.

She said Mr Hastie was “out of step” with his community, which returned a 60.2 per cent ‘yes’ response in a postal survey on the change.

“Andrew Hastie’s personal views have clouded his judgement on the issue of marriage equality, and the survey results show that he is out of touch with the views of his electorate and with the majority of Australians,” Senator Pratt said.

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Mr Hastie told a press conference before he was elected in a byelection in 2015: “If the people of Canning want [parliament] to legislate in favour of same-sex marriage, as their representative it is my obligation to push that through”.

On Wednesday, Mr Hastie said he would abstain from a vote in parliament and on Thursday posted to Facebook an interview from 2016 in which he discusses abstaining.

“Abstaining is a valid choice, in the same way I wouldn’t bind those who’ve advocated for the last 15 years to never again introduce into the parliament a bill for same-sex marriage,” he said in the October 2016 interview.

“We’ve got to ultimately respect everyone’s individual conscience here, but it’s a national vote and if it prevails 50 plus one for the ‘yes’ case, then it will sail through the parliament as the Prime Minister has said time and again.”

Mr Hastie said in a Facebook post on Thursday afternoon that we wouldn’t ask Labor MPs who planned to vote ‘yes’ to change their votes because their electorates had returned ‘no’ votes.

“In 2015, he made a commitment to the people of Canning that he would push legislation through should Canning return a yes vote – and he should stick to that commitment and vote yes in parliament now,” Senator Pratt said.

“Andrew Hastie campaigned hard against marriage equality in his own electorate, including saying hurtful things about gay and lesbian people, and it is now time for him to stand up for our community.”

Mr Hastie declined to comment, but a spokesman referred journalists to a statement the MP made after the results of the postal survey was made public.

A number of Labor MPs in the eastern states have signalled their intention to vote for the legislation despite overwhelming opposition to same-sex marriage in their electorates.

But WA MP and same-sex marriage opponent Ian Goodenough said he would vote for the legislation after his electorate of Moore returned a ‘yes’ response to the postal survey.

Overall, 61.6 per cent of Australians who returned a survey form were in favour of a change in the law to allow same-sex marriage.

There were 4.9 million Australians (or 38.4 per cent) who voted no.

Almost 80 per cent of the 16 million Australians on the electoral roll responded to the survey.