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

Thank you very much, Senator Hinch. I should congratulate you on your maiden question—a very punchy, sharp, direct and relevant question, if I may say so. As I said in answer to Senator McAllister, I am an optimist about the capacity for the Australian people to have a civil and respectful debate about a vexed social issue. And of course, Senator Hinch, you of all people, having had a very long career in broadcast journalism, would know that there are always outliers. There are always people who will say aggressive and regrettable things but they are outliers. I am sure this public discussion that we will have in the course of the plebiscite campaign about the meaning of marriage and whether the institution of marriage should be extended to include same-sex couples will be a respectful public debate.

The government, in order to ensure that that is the case, has designed to mechanism, has created an architecture. I want to pay particular tribute to my friend and colleague Senator Scott Ryan, whose knowledge of Australian electoral law is peerless, for devising an architecture through a publicly approved 'yes' committee and 'no' committee on which both sides of politics and the crossbench will have an opportunity to be represented, and on which prominent Australian citizens will also have the opportunity to be represented. I believe that those committees, from both the 'yes' point of view and the 'no' point of view, will set the tone of this debate.