Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The votes of the Australian people were tallied, and the Australian people have voted yes to changing the Marriage Act of our country. I know many people questioned the original plebiscite. I did. I know many opposed the postal survey. I did. Many gay and lesbian people felt uncomfortable asking for equal rights before the law because why should you supplicate for the same rights and responsibility as others? Nevertheless, we must acknowledge with awe and gratitude the willingness of our country men and women to stand beside us, to affirm us and to join us in voting yes. On behalf of gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual and intersex Australians and their families, I say, with humility and with gratitude, thank you.

Yesterday we saw a glimpse of the country we all yearn for, a country that is fair minded, generous and accepting. We saw a country that was willing to embrace its hopes rather than hold onto its fears. Many of us across this chamber have seen something of that great Australian story that compelled us into public life. For the Liberals and conservatives who yearned for change, we see in this result the shining city on a hill with more freedom, more acceptance and more grace. For those opposite, they have lived out Ben Chifley's magnificent call to fight for the right so that truth and justice will prevail.

In many cases, Australians voted for someone they knew, and in just as many they voted for someone they didn't. The wonder of this result is that it brings together young and old, gay and straight, conservative and progressive, immigrant and Indigenous, in the most unifying Australian coalition. True, some wanted a 15-year debate to be over so that we could move on to other pressing issues, but mostly there was an understanding by our fellow citizens that the life path for a young gay or lesbian teenager or young adult is harder than their heterosexual brothers' and sisters'. Australians voted to make that path easier. It wasn't just a vote of acceptance; it was that deep, loving embrace of a big family.

Every time we stand in this chamber, we do so as representatives of the people. In amending the Marriage Act, we do so knowing that we have the full confidence of the Australian people. The senators from Tasmania know that 63.6 per cent of Tasmanians voted yes. The senators from Queensland know that 60.7 per cent of Queenslanders voted yes. The senators from this fine Capital Territory know that 74 per cent of Canberrans voted yes. The senators from New South Wales know that 57.8 per cent of Australia's most populous state voted yes. The senators from Victoria know that 64.9 per cent of Victorian residents voted yes. The senators from the rugged Top End know that 60.6 per cent of Territorians voted yes. The senators from SA know that 62.5 per cent of electors voted yes, and my 11 brothers and sisters, senators from that great state of WA, know that our home state delivered a resounding 63.7 per cent yes vote. If ever there was a vote that took us back to being the states' house, I think this is it. We should also note that 133 electoral divisions out of 150 delivered a yes vote. In WA it was a clean sweep: 16 seats out of 16 seats voted yes.

This was not just a vote about a law but a vote about who we are as a people. I have listened to hundreds, if not thousands of LGBTI Australians in past years. Many have written, emailed, Facebooked, tweeted, spoken to me in airports and at functions or simply picked up the phone. There is a commonality in all these conversations and in all of our lives: it is that of rejection and acceptance, isolation and inclusion—but, acutely, of shame and pride. It is the silent chord that runs through all of our lives, but acutely through the lives of LGBTI Australians. All too often the biggest hurdle for so many is that of self-acceptance and finding that path where we can honestly reconcile who we are with the hopes and dreams we have for our own lives and what we think are the expectations of others.

I've been fortunate: I have an accepting, embracing and loving family. The heartbeat of their love for me didn't skip a beat. Not everyone is that fortunate. My own journey of acceptance has been greatly influenced by a book I read as a younger man. The book was Coming Out Conservative by Marvin Liebman. It helped answer that question we all face: what must I do to live an honest and authentic life? It's a book that has sustained me through good times and through bad. Liebman writes: 'If I have learnt anything about life, it is to be yourself. Be what you are, no matter who you are or how you were born. Don't try to be what others want you to be. Accept the difference of others, include them in your lives. By shutting others out merely because they are different, you diminish your own life and that of your children.'

The decision of the Australian people to allow same-sex couples to marry is an offered hand to those deep chords within gay and lesbian Australians' lives. Nothing speaks more of acceptance than marriage. Marriage is also the way that we admit adult members to our loving families. As Paul Ritchie wrote in that beautiful book Faith, Love and Australia: the Conservative Case for Same-Sex Marriage: 'Marriage can be a powerful affirmation of our lives. A wedding is the day we see our parents' joyful tears and receive their blessing. It is when we hear our best friend's speech, with love hidden in the humour, and it is when the love of our life is admitted to our family and we to theirs. It is the day we are blessed by our families.' Because of this bill, that blessing will no longer be denied to our LGBTI children.

One of the reasons this bill is so vital is that it reflects the deepest of liberal and conservative ideals: liberal because it advances the sum of freedoms and conservative because it nurtures our families, affirms a vital institution and strengthens the social fabric which is the sum of all of our human relationships. Today I think of John Gorton, the only Prime Minister to come from the Senate, who 44 years ago moved a motion calling for the decriminalisation of homosexuality. In him we saw a liberalism that was empathetic and a man who even after achieving the highest office was still willing to walk a mile in another man's shoes. Gorton's mantle was taken up by hundreds of Liberal and National Party members who lent their names to the Libs and Nats for Yes campaign. To all I say: thank you.

Jack Kennedy once said with more than a touch of irony:

Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.

When I look at this victory and the thousands who made it possible, I keep thinking of one man: the one who carried the torch well before there were any LGBTI members of the coalition. That man is the member for Leichhardt, Warren Entsch. Like John Gorton, he is a wonderful mix of gruffness and empathy that makes him the most unexpected but compelling of warriors. This bill is more Warren's than anyone's. We simply walk in the tracks that he's laid for us.

The Australian people have voted to change the Marriage Act. Now we must move decisively on their behalf. The postal survey was a vote on amending the Marriage Act, full stop. Yes, there are other worthy debates about freedom of expression and living out our shared values and, yes, I'll be a willing and enthusiastic participant in those debates. But those matters cannot be part of the Marriage Act. They can live for another day. This bill, in keeping with the express will of the Australian people, is solely about amending the Marriage Act. I believe this is a comprehensive bill and I'm willing to engage in the substantive issues the bill addresses.

This bill seeks to remove existing discrimination from the Marriage Act and protect religious institutions and does not reintroduce commercial discrimination. Let me be clear: amendments that seek to address other issues or seek to deny gay and lesbian Australians the full rights, responsibilities and privileges that they already have will be strenuously opposed. Australians did not vote for equality before the law so that equality before the law that has already been gained could be stripped away.

This is a fair bill. This bill recognises the special place of marriage that transcends our civic and religious life. In many ways the undercurrent debate over recent years has been the question: is marriage a holy secular institution or a wholly secular institution? My message is that it can still be both without curtailing our civic or religious freedoms.

This bill advances the civic rights of all Australians and provides protection for religious institutions to continue to be guided by their own tenets of their own faith. Nothing in this bill takes away an existing right, nor does any of it diminish an existing civil freedom. The change proposed in this bill is not revolutionary; it is evolutionary. Yesterday's decisive outcome after a 15-year debate is a reflection of Edmund Burke's admonition:

Time is required to produce that union of minds which alone can produce all the good we aim at. Our patience will achieve more than our force.

Whether we admit it or not, we all bring our full selves to this place. All of us are a product of our families, our histories, our connections and the parties and communities from which we come. It is the strength and wonder of being a representative body.

I've spoken this morning very much as a gay Australian, but let me also say a few words as someone who is also a Christian Australian. It is as much a part of who I am as my nationality or indeed my sexuality, and it is in part why I wrestled with this issue for so long. Being true to self is often as much about being true to the people who loved us and nurtured us, and that equally applies to me. My faith is not a platform; it's a refuge. It's why on my desk there stands a crucifix. It gives me strength when there appear to be difficult times ahead of me. So I want to acknowledge the very genuine concerns some Christians and religious people around Australia have expressed during this postal survey and give a voice to them. People voted no not because they had a particular problem with gay and lesbian Australians but because they felt it was the easiest expression of their fear about the change in Australian culture towards people of religious faith. The no advocates spoke much about religious freedom but couldn't point to exactly what freedom was being lost. That's because what religious people fear has little to do with laws but everything to do with culture.

Let me express the fears that many people of faith have in our modern world. Many Australians voted no because they fear a world where they won't be able to live their identity, where they can't fully express who they are. They fear a world where they will be shamed for who they are. They fear a world where their faith will be questioned by internet mobs and government tribunals. They fear a world where they mightn't be promoted at work if people knew what they believed or how they lived. They fear a world of ostracism for who they are and what god they follow. They fear a world where violence might be directed against them by a mad few for no reason other than the faith they profess, the place in which they choose to worship. I understand these fears because they are reflections of the fears LGBTI citizens have felt through our country's history: fears about acceptance, fears about jobs, fears about hiding a part of you and, yes, fears about violence. This vote is not about replacing one persecuted minority with another or giving one hope to one group while inflicting fear on another group; it must be about advancing the hopes and dreams of all citizens, no matter their sexuality, ethnicity or religion.

As Australians we have a shared inheritance. Sir Robert Menzies, using the beautiful words of Saint Paul, said that, as Australians, we are members of one family—and indeed we are. The error of our times is that all too often in this chamber we seek to advance the base that elected us rather than the nation that needs us; we play to one group rather than to advance all. Yes, this is a great day for our democracy and our country, but it is also a day when we reaffirm our commitment to affirm the different identities of all our citizens and pledge ourselves to protect them all.

As a young man I never believed I could serve as a senior adviser to a Prime Minister or a Premier, because I was a gay man; John Howard and Richard Court both proved me wrong. I never believed that I could be preselected to be a Liberal Party candidate or senator; the Liberal Party proved me wrong. I didn't believe my name would ever be accepted by the people at an election; the people of Western Australia proved me wrong. And I never believed the day would come when my relationship would be judged by my country to be as meaningful and valued as any other; the Australian people have proven me wrong. To those who want and believe in change and to those who seek to frustrate it, I simply say: don't underestimate Australia, don't underestimate the Australian people, don't underestimate our country's sense of fairness, its sense of decency and its willingness to be a country for all of us. Not only does our country live these values; it votes for them as well. Thank you.