Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister representing the Prime Minister (Senator Abetz) to a question without notice asked by Senator Wong today relating to marriage equality.

To pick up on Senator Macdonald's remarks in relation to marriage equality, in fact it is the Liberal Party which is not looking at representing the people of Australia. He would know very clearly that the majority of the people of Australia want marriage equality. It is, in fact, this government that is denying that outcome.

We saw very clearly yesterday—and this came through in the opaque answer given by Senator Abetz—a Prime Minister who is actually prepared to manipulate his own party room and subvert the Liberal Party of Australia from allowing a free vote on this issue. I thought the Liberal Party supported that kind of proposition. No; of course not, because Tony Abbott, the Prime Minister, is fighting tooth and nail to remain yesterday's man, to take everyone back to the 1950s when the Australian people simply do not want to go back there. All he has done, of course, is make this an election issue when he could have given his Liberal Party members a free vote, a conscience vote, on this issue, which the Labor Party allows, so that people can vote on this issue—which is incredibly personal for a number of people—according to their conscience. I ask Senator Abetz to answer to the nearly 2,000 Tasmanians who turned out at City Hall in Hobart last Saturday to urge the Liberal Party to allow a conscience vote.

No matter what your views are on this issue—and I understand Senator Abetz's views, as they equate to the views of the Prime Minister, and I respect the views of others on this issue—I would expect everyone to respect other people's views.

Senator Ian Macdonald interjecting—