Robert Simms (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

We have heard a lot of bluster from the Labor Party on this issue today, and I am hearing it now from Senator Cameron, from his interjection. But the Greens are serious about this issue. We have been campaigning on it for decades and we want to see action in this parliament on the issue. If the Labor Party are serious about this issue, they will support the Greens in making their private senators' time available so that we can deal with this this week.

I have seen some interesting material circulated online on behalf of the Australian Labor Party referring to the Greens voting against our bill on marriage equality. That is a complete lie. That is completely untrue. However, the Australian Labor Party have voted against the Greens bill on marriage equality. They voted against it back in 2008, when the Greens first put this matter to vote. Labor voted against the Greens bill and they sat over there with the coalition, cosying up to their mates over in the Liberal Party, to try and kill off that reform. The great love affair at the centre of Australian politics, between the Labor and Liberal parties, was alive and well back in 2008.

That great love affair was also alive and well back in 2004, when the Australian Labor Party voted with the coalition to amend the Marriage Act to say that marriage was only between a man and a woman. Who stood up and said that that was the wrong thing to do? Who came out in the parliament and opposed that draconian measure? It was not the Labor Party. They were saddling up to the Liberals. It was the Greens senators—and the Democrat senators at that time as well—who stood up and who spoke out against that blatant homophobia. That is the track record of our party, and I will happily have that matched against the record of the Labor Party any day of the week.

Any Australian who follows this debate knows full well that the Greens have the track record when it comes to marriage equality. After all, it is our bill that Senator Leyonhjelm sought to have dealt with this week, earlier today, and it is our bill that we are seeking to have dealt with on Thursday in private senators' time. It is time that we saw more than just a debate on this issue and that we also saw a vote on the issue of marriage equality, here in the Senate and in the lower house as well. I saw some comments from Bill Shorten to that effect recently, saying that we should deal with this issue this week. Absolutely. Let us bring it on.

We have seen in the last few days the costs associated with a plebiscite—the enormous cost to our economy and the huge social cost to our community. The parliament does have the authority and the power to resolve this matter, and we should do so. We can start by having a vote in the parliament sometime this week. But we can also have this issue debated on Thursday. Labor have said they want to see this issue dealt with this week. We do too, so our challenge to the ALP is to make their private senators' time available so that we can deal with this matter. It is a private senator's bill and it should be dealt with in private senators' time. If the Labor Party want to have a debate about equality and who has the strongest record of standing up for LGBTI people, bring it on. Bring it on, because the Greens will win that debate, because we have got the proven track record and it is the Labor Party that are always missing in action—flip-flopping, backflipping and saddling up to the Liberals. No more hypocrisy—support this motion and let us get this done.