Gov RWNJ's have conceded defeat for their religious exemptions :)

 

The number of MP's who will vote against the religious protection amendments to the marriage equality bill has now increased, to an amendment slaughtering 80. So much so that dopey Dutton has conceded defeat.

This is an unmitigated failure by the lunar right. They comprehensively failed in the senate and they are failing now in the House of Representatives. Perhaps the poor dears may need a bit of counseling to cope with such a humiliating slap in the face. George Christenen has resorted to begging parliamentarians to vote with him saying "It's not a big ask". Obviously the guy is having trouble with defeat. Where's his god now then?

But most of all, this is an enormous smack down of Lyle Shelton and his extremist Australian Christian Lobby. They had so much influence in the gov that they wrote their own marriage discrimination bill for the far right to present to parliament as a replacement for the consensus Dean Smith bill. But they failed. Every step of the parliamentary way. All those TV appearances, all that media coverage, all that money they spent, and they've fallen flat on their faces. How sweat it is. 

Immigration minister Peter Dutton has conceded defeat over proposed amendments to the same-sex marriage bill that would have introduced wide-ranging exemptions, saying it is "impossible" they will pass. 

The House of Representatives is working its way through a lengthy list of speakers on the bill, which is expected to pass the parliament by the end of the week and pave the way for same-sex couples to marry in Australia. 

A number of proposed amendments, conceived by a group of government MPs who are largely opponents of marriage equality, would introduce broad exemptions for those who disagree with same-sex marriage. 

 These would include extending a right to civil celebrants to refuse to marry gay couples; protecting under law beliefs against same-sex marriage, sex before marriage, and gay relationships; and legislating a right for parents to remove kids from classes that mention same-sex marriage. 

But, as in the Senate last week, they are set to fail. A strong majority of around 80 MPs – consisting of Labor, four of the five cross benchers, and a handful of government members – is expected to vote down each amendment. 

More government MPs will vote against some of the amendments, but not others. 

 Dutton said the parliament is "governed by arithmetic" and conceded "it will be impossible to get those amendments up". 

 Dutton has argued for religious protections to be addressed in a review led by former attorney-general Philip Ruddock next year. This is in contrast to some of his fellow conservatives, including treasurer Scott Morrison, who have insisted protections should be enshrined in the marriage bill itself. Buzzfeed