Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The women MPs here today—Labor, Liberal, National Party, crossbenchers—all of us are here because our forebears literally rattled the chains. It was not because some MPs arrived at work, sat on the leather benches and decided, 'Now women should have the vote.' It was because actions were taken. Women were arrested; they were force-fed; they were abused. And one died. The actions were tough. They did that because they believed passionately that women should have the vote. And we benefit from that today. Society benefits. Those MPs who are trying to shut down this debate do not want to recognise that at times laws are wrong and at times laws do need to be rewritten—and they need to be broken to achieve that. The people who take that action are people we thank today.

So much of what progressive society has built has not been because MPs arrive at work and suddenly think: 'We'll do the right thing and we'll make it a fairer, more equal, more just society, where people don't get killed at work, where we save our precious environment.' It is because of action and, often, civil disobedience where people are getting arrested and putting themselves in the front line. It was not so long ago when some of the MPs here sat in the front foyer with climate activists, families, who had come here to put forward their voices and their concerns for the need for rapid action on climate change. I thought that was a very fine day. And it replicates what happens so often—usually outside our parliaments, sometimes inside our parliaments—where actions are being taken. I acknowledge that at times people might wonder why the law is being broken. But it is being broken to demonstrate a great wrong. The great wrongs in our society have at times been extreme. If the likes of the coalition, the Liberals and the Nationals—