Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Banking and Financial Services) Share this | Hansard source

She may support it, Senator Murray. However, the Prime Minister, Mr Howard, in a serious moral failure, signs up in writing and then fails to deliver. There was an intriguing leak on a cabinet discussion in the Financial Review about three weeks ago. It was intriguing because rarely does a cabinet leak occur. It is a very unusual circumstance and it is very rare indeed for cabinet to leak and for a full-blown report on the issue to be given in the Financial Review. It was a report on the discussion that took place in cabinet about this issue. Apparently, cabinet was split down the middle. As reported in the Financial Review, there was a fierce discussion, they were unable to reach agreement and it was left to the Prime Minister to make the call. But the Prime Minister made the call on this issue four years ago.

I will come back to that Financial Review report shortly. I noticed in some media shots the Prime Minister attending community meetings and addressing questions from the floor. When he was asked by someone in the audience whether he would remove the discrimination in respect of same-sex couples, he very bluntly said, ‘No.’