Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

Those great philosophers Mick Jagger and Keith Richards once sang: 'You can't always get you what you want, but you get what you need.' This bill is what people need. They do not need delay or for the bill to be put off or for a series of amendments to be carried by this House that then get referred to the Senate, begin the whole debate all over again and return to this House at some time in the future.

What my community want, as they have clearly indicated, is to get this done. That's what Australians voted for in overwhelming numbers. Is this bill perfect? No. It's a product of a consensus. It is a product of a collective effort by people of goodwill, across the Senate, to ensure that reform can move forward. During the voluntary postal survey, I and other advocates of a vote for yes, in response to the misleading campaigns of those who suggested that this would have all sorts of unknown consequences to the lives of people who won't be impacted by this legislation at all, clearly said: 'There is a bill already. It's a bill in the name of Dean Smith in the Senate.' It's a bill which has received, quite remarkably, unanimous support and consensus in the Senate.

I say to the member for Melbourne that there's a time when you don't think, 'Oh, I can make this improvement here so that it satisfies all of my wants.' This bill is it. This isn't a time for grandstanding. This isn't a time for trying to ensure there's product differentiation. This is a time for national unity. This is a time for support by people of goodwill, across this parliament, and I pay tribute to people on the other side of the chamber—people I don't normally agree with—because it's hard. It's easier if you're in a party looking for purity all of the time on every issue and you say, 'I think maybe there might perhaps be consequences to this, though I don't think they're real,' which is what the member for Melbourne just indicated, and it is what he indicated in his second reading speech. He spoke about these amendments as restating things that are already in the Sex Discrimination Act. He said that this amendment would seek to change the title of the bill. Guess what? Do a survey of Australians and see how many people know the title of any particular bill, and I'd be amazed if you still want to hold up marriage equality in order to make change that is not of substance.

That's a fundamental area of disagreement that I have and why I'm in a major party, the Australian Labor Party. What I do in this place is come in here to make a real difference to real people and to real lives. That is what this legislation will do. That is why all of the amendments to this legislation should be rejected, whether they be the amendments we're considering now or future amendments moved by some of the opponents of marriage equality seeking to make changes which are not necessary. These issues were considered during the Senate processes. We have an outcome—we have an outcome that will produce marriage equality and can do it today. The big campaign of marriage equality was 'let's get this done'. Let's not delay, let's not look for areas of disagreement, because that's simply not productive. I say to the member for Melbourne that I think it's unfortunate that these unnecessary amendments are being moved. I won't be supporting them. I call upon other members of the House not to support them, not to support the other amendments and to get this done today.

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