Susan Lamb (Longman, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

After the government's infighting came to a head on Monday, I sat down and penned some words on what same-sex marriage means for me as a mother and as an MP. I shared these words with my electorate, and it was really warming to see the support that I received. Some related to my pain, as the mother of a gay man, to see one of my children being discriminated against. Some personally recognised the humiliation that they themselves are subjected to as members of the LGBTI community. Many people, though, regardless of their sexuality, recognise this for what it is: a weak decision by a weak Prime Minister, intended to insult and divide and to delay the inevitable. In a society that is continually moving forward and progressing, equality is inevitable. Once, people were against interracial marriage, giving women a vote or recognising Indigenous Australians as people, but times change and societies move forward.

A country can only move forward with a strong leader—not one who has been unconvincingly whimpering out the words, 'I'm a strong leader,' when everyone else is thinking the opposite, not one who leads a dysfunctional rabble that would rather throw their hands up and say, 'I can't do this,' and ask the Australian people to do their job for them. Elected representatives are elected to represent everyone, regardless of whom they love, and to pass legislation that moves Australia forward. This can mean making really tough decisions, conceding defeat and admitting that sometimes the other side has it right. But your government, this government, refuses to do that; instead, they are employing a form of vote collection which Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has previously recognised as a calculated method designed 'to disenfranchise Australians, particularly young people'. That's how he described a postal vote.

It's really no surprise that all of those who were publicly against marriage equality were the ones pushing for a postal plebiscite: people like my neighbouring MP, the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Peter Dutton, who as the member for Dickson has just overseen the closure of—wait for this—a post office in his electorate. He's just overseen the closure of it. Even this government knows that marriage equality is inevitable, but it wants this to fail. Even though they know the Australian people want marriage equality, they want this to fail. Even though they know that allowing two people who love each other to be treated the same as everyone else, they want this to fail.

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