Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise as the seconder to support the Marriage Legislation Amendment Bill 2015 and to talk about how we are going to win marriage equality. I am grateful to the mover, the member for Leichhardt, and the co-sponsors, the members for Werriwa, Brisbane—who is here today—Melbourne, Indi, and Denison for the opportunity to second the bill. I believe that marriage equality can and will be won. We are going to win by having the better of the argument because we are on the side calling for equality before the law. We are not going to be defeated by appeals to tradition, because marriage has never been set in stone and because all children and families deserve to feel equally valued. We are going to keep working until this parliament changes the law to make marriage equality a modern Australian reality.

Equality before the law is not a trivial matter that can be brushed aside to allow for old prejudices to be maintained. The right to be free from discrimination is included in article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights guarantees equality before the law. The Australian Human Rights Commission considers that the fundamental human rights principle of equality means that civil marriage should be available without discrimination to all couples, regardless of sex, sexual orientation or gender identity. I respectfully agree. Marriage is not frozen in time. As the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court stated, it is circular reasoning, not analysis, to maintain that marriage must remain a heterosexual institution because that it what it historically has been. It is not even the case that marriage has always been available to people of opposite sex regardless of their own characteristics and attributes. Nowadays Protestants can marry Catholics but that was not always the case. First Nations people can marry without permission but, as Steven Oliver has pointed out, referring to his own grandparents, that was not always so. Persons of different races can marry. That was not always so. Marriage has changed, and so have families. The law, always a laggard, should change too.

This parliament should and ultimately, I think, will change the law. The High Court has made clear that this parliament already has the power to legislate for marriage equality. Suggestions of a plebiscite or a referendum are intended to obstruct. The Prime Minister in supporting such ideas is not doing so because he wants marriage equality. To the contrary, he has reportedly said he will use tricky processes to block it. We are here to legislate. Let us do so. We should no more abdicate our responsibility by outsourcing this decision than we should in respect of any other. I know that this bill might not be given the treatment it deserves in this parliament, but this cause, the cause of marriage equality, will receive the treatment it deserves when we ultimately win. We in this place have an opportunity to do something good—something transformative for people's lives that does not cost a cent. It not an opportunity that you get very often. We have the opportunity to open up to more people the sort of joy and pride that we witnessed this year in Ireland and in the United States, if only we have the courage to consider all relationships as being equal.

I acknowledge the work that Australian Marriage Equality and PFLAG have done. I thank Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek for their leadership on marriage equality, along with many other members and senators, especially Senator Wong, whose support for equality is well known. I acknowledge those in political parties like Rainbow Labor, like LNProud, like the New South Wales Young Nationals, along with the many individual members who have advocated for marriage equality, along with the political and parliamentary staff who have worked on this bill. I thank every Australian who has contacted my office to advocate for, and against, marriage equality respectfully. I have to say that not all of the emails I have received have been respectful, but most of them have been. I thank everyone who has told me their personal stories. I recently received a beautiful wedding photo from a woman who had married her partner at the time, briefly, when marriage equality was lawful in the ACT. It was a beautiful picture and she wrote to me to say 'thank you for continuing to advocate for marriage equality' and she hopes that one day soon marriage equality will be a reality for her and her partner as well. I have had people from all walks of life in very unexpected places, including when I have travelled overseas, stop me to say, 'I'm really glad that people are working for marriage equality and that they are doing it in such a bipartisan fashion'.

So, for everyone who might be feeling a bit disappointed about the fact this bill is not presently listed for a vote, or about the messages being sent by the Prime Minister, I want you to know that we are on the right side of the argument. We are standing up for couples, families and kids and we know this parliament has the power to legislate. Those of us who are advocating for marriage equality should telephone our federal representatives and ask them to allow this bill to come on for further debate and for a vote. Together we can make marriage equality a reality.

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