George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

The moment cannot be allowed to pass without making the point that when Senator Brown spoke on my amendments he revealed his agenda—the agenda which the government has been warned all along lay behind this bill and which the Labor Party decided to go along with. My amendments gave the Labor Party the opportunity at the last minute to back off and to protect the definition of marriage in the 1961 Marriage Act. By the Labor Party voting with Senator Brown and the Greens to oppose the coalition's amendments, they removed the capacity to protect the definition of marriage in the 1961 Marriage Act applying to the ACT. They have in effect, whether they realise it or not, given their sanction to gay marriage in the ACT.