Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I apologise for being ignorant. I guess it is perhaps because the argument put by the opposition has been so pathetic in terms of explaining why these amendments need to be put forward. I would ask Senator Brandis to explain to me why a married couple who need assistance in sorting out their reproductive issues are somehow more parents than those who are not married but are in a de facto relationship—regardless, I must point out, of whether they are in a same-sex or opposite-sex relationship. Educate the chamber and educate the community, because I do not think that the Australian community would accept that we have to have two different classes of parents and therefore two different classes of children.