Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Milne for her question. I suppose the first point to make is that I am not briefed as to the scenarios that the senator poses as to what possible responses we might have to a series of events. I can, though, say that the question of equal right to marry is the subject of, I think, four separate bills currently before the parliament. This government has undertaken to ensure that the parliament has the opportunity to debate one of those bills in both chambers. We want to give every parliamentarian the opportunity to have a say about this important public policy issue and we are facilitating that by allocating government legislation time and also seeking to have the Senate sit late next Tuesday evening to facilitate the participation of as many senators as want to take part in the debate. My expectation is that sometime next week both the House of Representatives and the Senate will vote on one of the bills currently before the parliament that seeks to give equal rights to gay and lesbian people to marry. So the parliament will get a chance to express its view on that issue in both chambers, which I think is appropriate given the public interest and debate around that. From the Labor point of view, we will be having a conscience vote on that. But I understand other parties—