Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on this important and historic cross-party bill, the Marriage Legislation Amendment Bill 2015, which will remove discrimination from our marriage laws and achieve marriage equality in this country. I am proud to join the six other MPs to cosponsor this very important bill.

I say to the honourable member for Leichhardt, Warren Entsch, who has moved this bill: for years, you have been a champion for equality in this place. You have gone up against the hard-right and oftentimes homophobic wing of your party to fight for what is right. You faced up to the former Prime Minister and you forced his hand to accept that his views were not fit for our modern Australia and that we will achieve marriage equality in this country. For your courage and your work, I thank you, and I know that millions of Australia across this country thank you too. And, to all the cosponsors on this bill: it has been a pleasure to work with you across the political spectrum and to achieve this important reform.

But our work is not done. We must redouble our efforts because, on this fundamental issue of equality, Australia is lagging behind the rest of the world. We are now the only developed English-speaking country to not have equal marriage laws. Our laws continue to send the message to people who are same-sex attracted and in same-sex couples that their love is not equal and that they are not equal. Our homophobic marriage laws are part of a system that for years has told young people who are understanding their sexuality and identity: 'If you're not straight, you're not equal. You're different or you're wrong.' They have been part of a system that has allowed the tragedy of young people who are same-sex attracted or gender diverse committing suicide at rates many times greater than their heterosexual peers. But that is not what most people in Australia think and it is not what most people in this parliament think. This bill is a chance to take another important step away from this discrimination and pain of the past, and into creating a world where all people know and feel that they are equal regardless of who they love. It is a chance to say that love is love, that love knows no gender and that love is beautiful and equal.

As a country we are faced with the perverse situation now where the leaders of the three largest political parties all support marriage equality, yet this parliament is prevented from making marriage equality a reality. The Greens, as a whole, stand ready to support this bill, but the old parties' political factions stand in the way. The Greens have long stood for the rights of same-sex attracted and gender diverse people and couples. I am proud to have introduced the first ever bill to achieve marriage equality into the House of Representatives in 2012. As a party, Australians know they can trust us to vote for equality—every MP, every vote, every time. But the other parties are forcing delays, and loving couples across the country are having to wait. The deals of the Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten, with Labor factions mean Labor MPs, unlike virtually any other decision of their party, are not bound to support the bill. Our new Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, says he supports marriage equality, but because of the deals that he made to become Prime Minister he is continuing with Tony Abbott's policy of delay by insisting it be taken to a plebiscite after the next election.

But Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's pandering to the conservative rump of his party is not good enough. His shotgun wedding with the right wing of the Liberal party cannot be allowed to stand in the way of equality. Australians are ready for equality. They have been ready for years. And there are loving couples who are now running out of time, who can no longer be forced to wait to celebrate their love and their relationship with their loved ones and to have their love recognised as equal under our laws. The Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, should have the courage of his convictions and allow this bill to proceed. He should stand up to the bigots in his party and let this parliament do what the country wants and vote for equal love.

This is a chance for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to prove that he is not just Tony Abbott in a better suit. This is a chance for the Prime Minister to show us that he is better, not just slicker. And in the end it is not what we say; it is what we do that matters. So, I call on Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull: let us go-ahead and vote on and pass this bill, because the numbers are there. Or if they are not there yet they will be there, when every member of every political party knows that they have the right to vote in the way that their constituency wants them to and that the Australian people want them to. Let us use this parliament for what is meant for. Let us take a stand for equality and do something that matters to so many Australians. Let us open up our arms and our hearts for love.

Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, I am mindful that we are a little over time, so I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on the Marriage Legislation Amendment Bill 2015.

Marriage equality is inevitable; it is just a matter of when. I make that point again: it is inevitable; it is just a matter of when. I do wonder why we delay it in the way we do. It is just a matter of time, because it is the right thing to do. It is clearly the right thing to do, to allow any two adults who love each other to have the same rights under the marriage act as any other two adults who love each other. At the moment it is legislated discrimination against same-sex couples, and that is a wrong that must be righted.

It is just a matter of time before we will have marriage equality, because it has overwhelming public support. In fact, Crosby Textor, perhaps one of the more credible pollsters, with one of the more credible polls on this issue, found public support in the community for marriage equality at 72 per cent. Almost three-quarters of the Australian population when asked, 'Should we have marriage equality?' said yes. It is just a matter of time as evidenced by the experience in the rest of the world. The member for Melbourne is right. We are the only developed, English-speaking country in the world that now does not have marriage equality. The United Kingdom has it, New Zealand has it, most of Western Europe has it and most of the United States has it. Why, even in Alabama same-sex couples are getting married!

I do respect people who oppose marriage equality. They have their case to make and we should respect them. They have every right to hold their view, to express their view and to practice their faith, but I do not agree with them. And I do not agree with them on one very important point they make. They say that marriage equality must not be allowed because it would be wrong for children—it would be harmful for children. But that really key plank of the anti-marriage equality argument completely and utterly misses the point. The fact is that there are same-sex couples bringing up children at the moment very successfully, in wonderful and loving environments.

This really brings me to the key point here as far as children go: so long as children are brought up in a loving environment with all their needs met then, really, those are the only things that matter. You can have a mum and dad being good parents. You can have two dads being good parents. You can have two mums being good parents. You can have a single dad being a good parent or a single mum being a good parent. It is so long as it is in a loving environment and that the children's needs are met. Just as a heterosexual couple might not be good parents, two men might not be good fathers, two women might not be good mothers, a single mum or a single dad might not be good parents, it is not about their marriage status. It is whether they have a loving, warm home environment for those children.

The opponents of marriage equality would also say, 'It has always been the case that marriage is between a man and a women.' That is not the case; in fact, it was only 11 years ago, during the period of the Howard government, that the Marriage Act was changed to make it explicit that marriage would be between a man and a woman. Before that, it was not explicit in the Marriage Act. In law, in this country, it has simply not always been the case that marriage must be between a man and a woman.

Of course, the opponents of marriage equality are concerned that it will be an attack on religion, and that somehow they would lose their religious rights. But of course, churches already choose who they marry; that is not disputed, and it is certainly not disputed by me. It was very important that in this bill there is included a very clear provision to allow the churches to continue to choose who they marry.

As we know, the previous Prime Minister and the current Prime Minister are committed to a popular vote on this matter. Frankly, that is better than nothing—and let's hope that it happens sooner rather than later—but isn't it our job in this place to represent our community? When you have an issue where the right course of action is so evidently clear—an issue where there is such overwhelming public support for reform; an issue where this country is so completely and utterly out of step with every other developed English-speaking country in the world—surely it is our job to go down into that big room downstairs and to vote in favour of this bill and to send the bill to the Senate, where hopefully they will vote in favour of it too. That is our job. I think we should do that with this bill this year.

Debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 13:35 to 16:00