Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

This debate on same-sex marriage has torn a lot of Australians apart. We have had a plebiscite in which 61 per cent of Australians voted for it, approximately 39 per cent voted against it and about 21 per cent didn't vote at all. I have had conflicting views from people: they never received their papers and didn't have a chance to vote. Regardless of that, 61 per cent of Australians voted for it.

Same-sex marriage is a very contentious issue, and I'm continually getting emails from people who are very, very upset. They don't agree with marriage between people of the same sex. The whole debate was centred around the idea that what you've got is called love: 'This is all about equality; it's all about love.' I did not agree with the plebiscite. I thought the question should have gone to a referendum so it would be enshrined in our Constitution, in section 51 where it states the word 'marriage'. We need to define in our Constitution that marriage is to be accepted by the Australian people as being between a man and a woman or people of the same sex. My concern about this is that, if we pass it in this parliament of 226 people, who's to say that further on down the track a parliament could not expand it to mean multiple marriages or who knows what? I believe that what should be enshrined in the Constitution is what it has been determined the people want, whether it is marriage between people of the same sex or of the opposite sex. It could then only be changed by being taken back to the people. Anyway, the plebiscite has been taken.

I would also like to say that I am of mixed opinion on this and I voted no. My personal vote was no. I have grown up of the opinion that marriage was between a man and a woman, but I do not take away the right of people to be in a relationship and to find happiness within themselves.

Debate interrupted.