Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Along with the member for Grayndler, who's been here three years longer than I have, I've been on a long journey on this issue. We've been on a long journey. For nearly a decade we've stood up in this place supporting the rights of what was then called the gay community, now the LGBTI community, to not have discrimination enforced against them in Commonwealth legislation. Albo, as he's known, the member for Grayndler, and I had a lot of joy 10 years ago, in 2008, in successfully moving to remove discrimination against LGBTI taxpayers in Commonwealth legislation.

Let's look at this marriage equality survey in its international context. The first country to vote for marriage equality was the Netherlands, in 2001, and 26 other countries currently have marriage equality, including Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States and Uruguay. I agree with the previous speaker that Australia is a country of parliamentary democracy, not a democracy that believes that a referendum or a survey should be taken on every issue. We're here now. There is a famous film called The Rise And Rise of Michael Rimmer, which points to the dangers for democracy of imposing endless referendums on people.

There were difficulties; there was hatefulness during this survey. But we got through it. Across the nation, 61.6 per cent of people voted yes and 38.4 per cent voted no. Participation was 79.6 per cent—a very high response for a voluntary vote. The survey was mailed out to 16 million-plus Australians, and the ABS received 12,727,000 surveys back. Victoria received the second-highest result in the nation, behind the ACT, and the highest result of all states, with 64.9 per cent of the population voting yes and 35 per cent no. In Victoria three million people participated in the vote: 2,145,000 'yes' and 1,1661,000 'no'. Again, I think it was a bit of a surprise to observers that people over 50 were overwhelmingly supportive, with a 'yes' vote of more than 85 per cent. In Melbourne Ports the result of the survey was astonishing. We achieved the third-highest result of all 150 electoral districts in the nation; 82 per cent of eligible voters had their say. That's 86,000 of my constituents who participated, and 82 per cent of those voted yes. Only the seats of Melbourne and Sydney had a higher return.

This has a history, of course. Every place has its own social history. Most recently we had the shadow Assistant Treasurer, the member for Brisbane and Terri Butler come and do a roundtable with the LGBTI community in my seat. Prior to that we had the shadow foreign minister, Senator Penny Wong, at one of the best attended public meetings that I've ever participated in in my electorate, with a great deal of enthusiasm for the Labor Party supporting positive change for marriage equality.

Melbourne Ports is, of course, where the Victorian pride march takes place, often with 11,000, 12,000 or 15,000 people—not quite as big as the Mardi Gras. It's the place where that great, iconic film Kenny was filmed. Some of the scenes at the pride march are inculcated in the Australian public's mind from that. The pride march began in 1996, but just 18 months before that Victoria Police detained 463 patrons of the gay nightclub Tasty, conducting public strip searches in one of Australia's most notorious instances of homophobic police brutality. That was 18 months prior to the beginning of the pride march in 1996 in Melbourne. So how much has Victoria changed? Victoria Police now participate in the pride march.

Of course, Melbourne Ports is the location of the new Pride Centre that's going into Melbourne, the first of its kind in Australia. It is an initiative of my friend the member for Albert Park, Martin Foley, and the state Labor government. I have to pay particular tribute to its chair, Jude Munro, a great battler for equal rights who I've known since university. She's been part of my education on this. The Pride Centre aims to be one of the unique initiatives that celebrate, bolster and protect equality, diversity and inclusion in our electorate. We have a very big LGBTI community. Hopefully, this will pave new directions for its future and honour and celebrate the brave and sometimes difficult past of people in the LGBTI community. It will house the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives, the Victorian AIDS Council and that great beacon of equality JOY Radio 94.9 FM, the community radio station that describes itself as the only LGBTIQ radio station in Australia. The Pride Centre will host the Midsumma Festival, the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, Switchboard and Minus 18.

I've reflected in this debate on my personal journey on this subject. Following deliberations over the years and consultation with friends—particularly LGBTI community leaders, who I'll come to in a second, and faith leaders—my views have evolved on this subject. A lot of it's due to close friends in the LGBTQI community, who have had a profound effect on me, led by the formidable Macca of JOY FM radio, David McCarthy; Tass Mousaferiadis; the very important author on the issue of AIDS David Menadue; my dear former staff member Jamie Bingham; and my current staff member Josh Spiegel, who's worked very hard to see equality achieved on this issue.

I realise that everyone living on this earth, no matter what their gender, sexuality, race or faith, is God's work and everyone is equal. Everyone is entitled to the same rights and, of course, responsibilities. I decided in 2013, despite a campaign to put a bit of a fatwa on me, to announce my position with my trusted friends Macca and Tass Mousaferiadis on Australia's only community LGBTI radio station, JOY 94.9, as a demonstration of my commitment to equality, and I'm glad I did. It's brought us all to this day, a day that began a long time ago for me with seconding the member for Grayndler's motions, which we passed during the Rudd government, to remove discrimination in Commonwealth legislation against members of the community. I can think of no better way of concluding my remarks than quoting two brief paragraphs from the member for Grayndler's speech on this bill. He said:

… in supporting this legislation, we are saying that we are a tolerant nation, that we are a respectful nation and that we are a nation that is stronger because of our diversity. I think it is unfortunate that we will be one of the last advanced industrialised nations to recognise marriage equality when this legislation is passed. Nonetheless, catching up with the rest of the world is a good thing. I pay tribute to all those who did the hard yards—the really hard yards—to get us to this place.

He concluded by saying—and I absolutely agree with this:

It is, however, of course, the Australian people who have led the parliament on this issue. I've been convinced for some time that a majority of Australians had shifted their view to favour marriage equality some time ago. I hear many Australians—

I certainly hear them in Melbourne Ports too—

say: 'I didn't used to support marriage equality. I do now.' I don't know of anyone who has said it to me the other way around—

I have to echo Albo's sentiment—

who has changed their mind from 'yes' to 'no'. Australians want us to live and let live—

It's the great Australian doctrine of the fair go—

They've decided that as individuals we have no right to cast judgements on love as it is felt by others.

I commend this bill to the House. I commend the great day that's going to come for members of the LGBTI community who have been working so hard for so long on these issues and for the many people who've faced terrible discrimination in the past because of their sexuality. I think tomorrow will be a great victory for them and a very inclusive moment for Australia.

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