Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to make a short statement in response to the announcement of the results from the postal ballot asking the Australian people if they support a change to the Marriage Act. Today we've heard a resounding yes result from the Australian people in favour of change. Every state and territory has returned a yes result. Every electorate in Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the ACT has returned a yes result. Twenty-seven out of 30 electorates in Queensland say yes. The highest yes vote in my home state of Victoria included results of over 71 per cent in Batman, 70 per cent in Wills, 82 per cent in Melbourne Ports and 83.7 per cent in Melbourne, all areas with strong Greens campaigns. Even in New South Wales, we saw Warringah with a yes vote of 75 per cent. They didn't buy Tony Abbott's lie that this was about political correctness. They knew what this was about.

We've heard that, despite the negativity, the lies and the misleading tactics of the no campaign, the majority of Australians know that love is love. While we should never have put this question of human rights to a popular survey, we've heard once and for all from the yes result that it's time for this parliament to take the next step—to make equal love a reality for those thousands and thousands of people in LGBTIQ communities right across the country. People have waited so long—they have watched as country after country has gone before us to make this change. I don't often quote musicians, but I quote the Bronski Beat singer and long-time queer-rights campaigner Jimmy Somerville when he sings:

Read my lips and they will tell you

Enough is enough is enough.

Enough of the stalling; enough of the confusion; enough of the damaging homophobic lies. The result today is yes. I say to my Senate colleagues in the chamber: this shouldn't come as a surprise. A decade of solid opinion polls on this subject have shown deep support right across the community. It's now time for action.

Today I proudly stand in this chamber wearing rainbow sneakers given to me as a gift. I want to tell you a little story about these sneakers. I was passing the St Mark's Uniting Church near my office in the Melbourne CBD and I saw a giant yes banner being displayed outside. So I made inquiries and found out what was happening inside that congregation. I met the Rev. Ric Holland. He was a larger-than-life character, proudly advocating to his congregation and to the surrounding community that love is love and that marriage should be a fundamental right enjoyed by everyone in our community. I noticed that in his office he had a pair of bright, rainbow-coloured sneakers, and he told me that his daughter had made them specially for the campaign. A few days later, I received a pair of sneakers at my office as a gift from Primrose, and I wear them today for three reasons. I wear them to bring the rainbow colours into this chamber as a show of solidarity with the people from LGBTIQ communities. I wear them to remind us that the support for yes and for a change to the Marriage Act comes from all corners of the Australian community, including from faith communities. And I wear them to take inspiration from the change that we're creating with LGBTIQ communities to go on and work harder for change with other communities—with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people; for safety and equality for women; for an end to the stigma and discrimination experienced by people with disabilities; for an end to racism, wherever it rears its ugly head; for a safe refuge and new life for people escaping war and violence; for an end to poverty; for the protection of nature in our precious places; and for action on global warming. There is so much hard work to do. We have to keep pounding the pavement. When in the future I recall a yes vote and look at these sneakers, I'll know that change is possible. It was only a few short years ago that this was a debate that existed outside of this chamber, but a long way from this place. I'll think of those famous words from Arundhati Roy:

Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.

Thank you, Primrose, for your inspiring rainbows. They have a special place in my heart.

I want to acknowledge and thank all those people who were part of the movement for change and who voted with their hearts for yes. I want to acknowledge the contribution of so many incredible people and organisations who made today's result possible. I want to acknowledge the thousands of couples across the country who have shared their stories of love and commitment and hope for equality to their families, their neighbours, their neighbourhoods and indeed, in this age of social media, right across the world. And the world today is listening.

Thank you to the two Victorian couples—Jacqui Tomlins and Sarah Nicholls, and Jason and Adrian Tuazon-McCheyne—who have been fighting for this since 2004. Thirteen years ago they sought to have overseas same-sex marriages recognised in Australia. The Howard government back then wasn't having a bar of it, and for the 13 years since they've continued to fight tirelessly for marriage equality.

Thank you to Rainbow Families, to just.equal, Australian Marriage Equality, PFLAG and the Human Rights Law Centre, who not only have been campaigning for marriage equality for many years but also led the High Court challenge to try to stop the damaging postal survey. There are numerous other organisations, including unions, Equal Love, states' AIDS councils and GetUp!, who have worked so hard for so many years to get to this point today.

Thank you to everyone across Australia who attended doorknocks, calling parties and rallies; who spoke to their friends, their families; who had those important conversations; and who were active in their local communities about the importance of saying yes. One million phone calls were made, 100,000 doors were knocked on and five million flyers were handed out. Thank you to our own supporters and volunteers in queer Greens groups around the country, who contributed hundreds of hours over the last few months to make sure we saw a yes result. Thank you to fellow parliamentarians and members of parties across the political spectrum who are supporting change. Thank you to those Greens colleagues who have gone before me, including Bob Brown and Christine Milne, and thank you to my current Greens team. I am so proud to be a member of a party where our track record is every MP, every vote, every time for marriage equality.

Today we find ourselves at the beginning of what I believe is the end of the fight for equality in marriage, but we all know there's some way to go yet. There will be some twists and turns as some on the no side seek to delay and derail the process. They'll use this as a Trojan Horse to try to entrench discrimination, rather than to remove it. But today we won't spend time dwelling on their negativity. We'll take time to celebrate the resounding yes vote. Today's a time for joy, for happiness, for love. Tomorrow, we'll come back to begin the debate in this chamber again on how to deliver the promise of a fairer, more inclusive Australia. Tomorrow, we must all recommit to the yes campaign to see through this final chapter. Our work is not yet done. We need the voices of the LGBTIQ communities and their many allies and supporters; we need to hear from them to remain steadfast, strong and loud. For yes to win we need to remain active and mobilised.

We will never turn back. We now have an opportunity to consign these exclusive, discriminatory, shameful laws to the dustbin and to usher in a more compassionate and inclusive era in our nation's history; to tell a different story about ourselves and who we are; to act now not just for us but for future generations, for our children who will no longer need to experience the discrimination and hate that so many before them have had to experience. Today we say yes to equality; we say yes to love.