Bob Day (SA, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to oppose the Marriage Equality Amendment Bill 2013. As I said in a previous speech about free speech, it is shameful that activists for marriage equality assume that opponents must be bigots. It seems there is no free speech in this country as long as there is this concept of hate speech. It is anathema to free speech to have attitudes and laws that are called hate speech.

With this bill today the Greens seek to jump the gun on the efforts of others in order to claim a political win for themselves. The government has agreed to a public vote on marriage but no, the Greens do not want to wait for that. They are scared of putting the question to the people. They are scared of how the silent majority will vote when given the chance. Opinion polls on news websites seem enough for them. They want to rush headlong into yet another radical experiment on Australian society.