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

Senator McAllister, it will not surprise you to learn that I have enormous respect for Senator Paterson's views on fiscal matters and I have enormous respect for Senator Paterson's concern to ensure that taxpayers' money is spent as frugally and as economically as possible. That being said, when it comes to the plebiscite, what we have decided to do is to adopt, as closely as possible, the funding mechanism that was adopted in 1999 for the republic referendum, when $7½ million was provided to both the 'yes' case and the 'no' case.

Now, Senator McAllister, I believe you feel quite strongly about this issue, so let me just say this to you one more time: we can do this. We can achieve this. The only party that is standing in the way of us achieving this is the Labor Party. The only person who is standing in the way of us doing this is Mr Bill Shorten. Mr Shorten should stop playing politics with gay people's lives.