Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Today is a good day for those who believe in love and the power of love to change things for the better. It is almost a year since I successfully moved a motion to ask members to take the temperature of their electorate regarding marriage equality, and since then the push for equal love has really warmed up. As a result it seemed to me that it would make sense to have time set aside to hear from everyone about what their constituents have said in the last few months, and I am glad that the government agreed to make time and we were able to secure space for everyone to express their views and the views of their electorates. I congratulate all the other honourable members who choose to participate in this discussion today, regardless of their position, because it is very important that we continue this debate.

It is a very important day today in the life of this parliament because I believe it represents another very important step along the road to full equality and to finally ending the legal discrimination that faces same-sex-attracted people. I am confident that it will not be long before marriage equality is achieved, because love builds bridges where there are none. Love thaws hearts and warms minds. Love is a powerful force for good and a force for change, and I believe that it is love that has brought us to this place in the debate and it is love that will carry us over the threshold of discrimination and fear to marriage equality. This push for equal love is not just important for those who want to get married. It sends a powerful message to the boy in a country town struggling with his sexuality or the student who wants to take her girlfriend to the high school formal that this country believes their love is equal.

The people of Melbourne support equal love and want marriage equality. Support for marriage equality was a key issue in my successful election campaign for the seat of Melbourne. The Greens were the only party to have marriage equality as part of our election platform and I was the only lower house candidate in the country who was elected on such a platform. During the campaign and subsequently, I have had such strong feedback and almost universal support for the Greens' stance on marriage equality. I have received several thousand emails on the issue and over nine in 10 have expressed support for marriage equality. In a survey I conducted in my electorate in Melbourne in November last year marriage equality was one of the top priority issues for respondents and, of the 475 people who responded to the survey, only one respondent expressed opposition to equal marriage rights. When out at listening posts in my electorate I have had great public support for our stance.

Melbourne has hosted numerous meetings, rallies and other events, all expressing support for marriage equality. From around the country I have also received many messages of support for the Greens' push for equal love, and a number of opinion polls reflect the fact that the overwhelming majority of Australians support ending discrimination. The universal feeling expressed in these messages is the same: why shouldn't someone marry the person they love? The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, out of step with public opinion, have said their parties will vote to continue discrimination, but already cracks in the wall of indifference placed around the old parties by their leaders are starting to show, and I want to commend the backbenchers and ministers that have been seeking to expand those cracks and break down that wall of indifference.

It seems to me that if you come from a party that believes in equality, that must be equality for everyone, and if you come from a party that believes in an individual's right to do as they wish with their own life, so long as it does not harm someone else, then that should extend to the most fundamental of rights, the right to be able to marry the person that you love. I believe it is not sustainable for the government or the opposition to hold back the floodgates of public opinion that wants Australia to come into the 21st century. I have great confidence that we will achieve full equality in the life of this parliament and, after all, if it is something that Catholic Spain can do then Australia as a 21st century advanced democracy should be able to do it as well. The Greens have a bill before the parliament ready and waiting to overturn the marriage ban. We are ready to move forward with that bill when it becomes clear that the barriers to love have been removed. This is not going to be the last time that this matter is debated in this House. We will, as I have said, press ahead in the Senate with our proposal to remove marriage inequality once one of the major parties steps into the 21st century and steps into line with mainstream public opinion and we can remove one of the last areas of discrimination in this country. (Time expired)

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