Australian Parliament blog

WELCOME to our Parliament blog, we’ll be covering proceedings from 9.30am as politicians consider the same-sex marriage bill.

Australia’s Parliament has voted to legalise same-sex marriage after days of debate.

5. 57pm

Bill passes through House of Representatives

A bill has been passed in Parliament to legalise same-sex marriage in Australia.

There were jubilant scenes in the public galleries and chamber where crowds and politicians rose to their feet, clapped and cheered. Many sang ‘I am, you are, we are Australian’ and waved rainbow flags.

Governor-General Peter Cosgrove could ratify the law in a matter of days which would ultimately make same-sex marriage legal in Australia before Christmas, as promised earlier by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. The laws will then come into effect on a date set by the government or within 28 days.

The Senate had already passed the bill without amendments with the House of Representatives following suit this afternoon.

A lot of tears on the floor of the House. A lot of hugs.



The galleries have erupted. @politicsabc — Matthew Doran (@MattDoran91) December 7, 2017

5.45pm

Final amendment voted down: jubilant scenes in public galleries

The final amendment has been voted down. Ayes: 63. Noes: 79. The public galleries have erupted.

Tony Smith reminded the crowd there is still the third reading to go.

The vote on legislation is now imminent and expected to take place within 30 minutes.

“What a day, what a day for love, for equality for respect,” Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said.

“It is time for more marriages, more equality, more love.”

Opposition leader Bill Shorten said: “When this bill is passed we should declare we are no longer a nation who voted no or yes, we are simply Australians all. Equality is never a gift to be given.”

5.30pm

Public galleries packed to the rafters

The public galleries are at full capacity with crowds ready to witness history being made.

It’s the last division. When the final vote comes there would have been, by one informed count, 57 speeches by senators and 118 by members of the House of Representatives.

Total time for talking in both houses will have been more than 55 hours.

5.20pm

Tanya Plibersek: ‘We’ll all remember where we were today’

“Today will be a day we look back on and be one of those days you remember,” Plibersek said while revealing she would not support the final amendment.

“You will remember exactly where you were when this legislation passed, exactly what you were doing when this legislation passed.

“By the end of today, Australia will be a better, kinder, fairer place for all of us.

“Soon, love will prevail and it will be your victory and I hope you will enjoy it.”

5.05pm

Katter apologises for being a ‘paranoid Christian’

Kennedy MP Bob Katter has told Parliament that Christians are “a little paranoid”.

“We have a history of being picked on in a big way,” Katter said.

“Please excuse me for being a little paranoid today and extremely worried.”

Katter then went on to explain something about how boys are told they “have to go to school dressed up as a girl”.

“Mr Speaker, I repeat for the third time, every single effort to protect religious freedom has been denigrated today,” he said.

“I would like to ask the Christians in Australia to remember not one time did the parliament protect them today.”

5.00pm

The final amendment

MP Sarah Henderson is arguing for freedom of speech and freedom of religion. The second half of the amendment is to protect civil celebrants who want to have the option to object to marrying a same-sex couple.

4.30pm

Andrew Broad’s second amendments voted down

Like all amendments that have come before it today, the Nationals MP’s second and final set of amendments for religious protections, has been voted down. Ayes: 60. Noes: 85. There’s one amendment left — from Sarah Henderson — to be considered before the vote on legislation.

Ministers Christopher Pyne and Kelly O’Dwyer have done as they promised and voted against all the amendments.

4.20pm

Andrew Broad’s first amendments have been voted down

Ayes: 52. Noes: 86. Another step closer to the vote on legislation. Broad is now moving his second round of amendments about religious protections.

“I haven’t seen too many people on the LGBTI community ... to become great social advocates like I have the religious community,” Broad said.

4pm

Bob Katter takes the floor

MP Bob Katter has stirred reaction from the public galleries while arguing for amendments to the marriage equality bill to protect religious freedoms. Katter said the debate “makes no difference as far as I can see to anything”.

“L-G-B-Ts, whatever the hell it is ... I have no idea what it is ... you’ll probably change it,” Katter said.

“I refuse to use the word g-a-y.”

The member for Kennedy’s comments came as he expressed confusion as to why people in same-sex relationships want to use the term ‘marriage’.

He said gay people have “an inflated opinion” of themselves and that “the rest of the world would agree”. He then accused the LGBTI community of stealing the word “gay” before reading out the alternative definition of the word: ‘Beautiful, light, happy and ethereal”.

“…LBGTs or whatever the hell the words are.” - @bobkatter addressing parliament on the same-sex marriage vote. #auspol #7News pic.twitter.com/1Gd1pUpXGW — 7 News Melbourne (@7NewsMelbourne) December 7, 2017

The gallery broke into applause.

“They are proud of it,” a bemused Katter responded.

“I would be embarrassed to go around calling myself all these wonderful adjectives.”

“They took the word gay off us ... now they’re taking the word marriage off us.”

Katter asked the speaker to “shut them up please” in reference to the “happy clappers” in the public gallery.

"I'm happy to call you gay" comes a heckle from the Govt's benches at Katter https://t.co/Ecq2FQL3AV — Ashlynne McGhee (@ashmcghee) December 7, 2017

3.55pm

Public gallery has last laugh

MP George Christensen said there has been “cheering from the gallery for the erosion of religious liberty”. The public gallery then cheered and let out a round of applause.

3.40pm

Barnaby Joyce addresses parliament

“I don’t come to this debate pretending to be a saint ... I acknowledge that I’m currently separated, that’s on the public record,” Joyce said of his marital status. His comments confirmed that he and his wife have separated after rumours surrounding the split contributed to a dirty election campaign in New England. The Deputy Prime Minister’s comments marked his first time speaking in Parliament since returning to the Lower House following a by-election.

3.30pm

Two amendments left to consider

Scott Morrison’s amendment about charities has been voted down. Ayes: 59. Noes: 82. There are two more amendments — proposed by Andrew Broad and Sarah Henderson — to be considered before the final vote on legislation.

Three more amendments to go. At the moment each one has taken 30-60 minutes. — Tony Burke (@Tony_Burke) December 7, 2017

3.00pm

Same-sex marriage debate resumes

Question Time has ended and the debate about marriage equality has resumed.

2.20pm

Debate on SSM likely to begin at 3pm

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says Question Time will finish earlier, meaning the debate on the same-sex marriage bill will likely resume at 3pm.

1.29pm

SSM debate cut short, vote will probably happen tonight

Parliament will move on to other business at 1.30pm and there will be Question Time before debate on the same-sex marriage bill will resume at 3.15pm.

Labor’s Tony Burke generously offered to withdraw his Matter of Public Importance speech, which he jokingly said would have brought down the government, and defer it until February next year so the debate could start earlier, at 3.15pm rather than 4.15pm.

Leader of the House of Representatives for the government Christopher Pyne said there would obviously be a vote on the bill this evening.

Members will still need to vote on Scott Morrison’s amendment, plus two others proposed by Andrew Broad and Sarah Henderson.

1.19pm

Protection of charitable organisations

Treasurer Scott Morrison has put forward amendments to ensure charities won’t have their charitable status removed if they express traditional views of marriage.

He said the amendments “do not threaten same-sex marriage, they don’t seek to prevent it, they don’t seek to frustrate it”.

However, Liberal MP Warren Entsch said he thought the changes were “completely unnecessary”.

He said advice had shown the charitable status of organisations would be unlikely to be impacted by a lawful refusal to conduct marriage ceremonies or other action in support of traditional marriage.

Labor also opposes the changes and Mark Dreyfus said the changes were not even being asked for by charitable organisations.

“Amendment of the Marriage Act will not affect ... their funding,” Mr Dreyfus said.

1.10pm

Four down, three to go

Alex Hawke’s amendments have also been voted down and maybe the pollies are starting to weary of the hours of debate, quickly moving to a vote.

As Warren Entsch noted in his speech earlier, there were 125 speeches across a total of 21 hours in the last few days.

But Mr Hawke did call for a division, the vote: 59 for, 87 against.

Only three more amendments to go.

12.46pm

Marriage Equality supporters gather at Parliament House

Ambassadors and volunteers from the Equality Campaign have started to gather on the lawns of parliament house ahead of the vote — which could be within hours — including comedian Magda Szubanski.

12.32pm

Protections for defence force officers

The next amendment is from Liberal MP Alex Hawke who wants to allow “authorised officers” the ability to refuse to marry gay soldiers overseas.

He described it as a “practical” and “sensible” amendment. He also noted that not one Labor MP had crossed the floor in support of amendments, despite MPs being given a conscience vote.

But Labor MP Terri Butler said Mr Hawke’s changes were not necessary as defence force chaplains already had an exemption in the bill.

She questioned the point of giving an exemption to a “marriage officer”, whose job was to undertake secular ceremonies that chaplains didn’t want to do.

“This amendment is unnecessary,” she said.

12.23pm

Vote narrows for Hastie amendments

A vote on Andrew Hastie’s amendments got more support among MPs than those put forward by Michael Sukkar.

A division recorded that 56 were in favour of his protections, compared to 87 against.

Sukkar’s changes only had support from 43 MPs.

12pm

Greens raise doubts over government in the Senate

Meanwhile in the Senate, Greens’ Leader Richard Di Natale was successful in suspending standing orders to allow an attack on the Turnbull Government’s refusal to refer its own MPs to the High Court.

Senator Di Natale accused Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of not being fit to govern.

Labor supported the successful Greens motion which:

(a) Notes that a number of members of the House of Representatives may not be eligible to sit in that House under section 44 of the Constitution;

(b) Expresses its deep concerns that the number of members lacking legal clarity in their eligibility means that the government can no longer legitimately guarantee a majority in the House of Representatives;

(c) Condemns the government for not complying with their own disclosure regime thus continuing this crisis.

(d) Urges the House of Representatives to refer all members whose eligibility is in question to the High Court Sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns to ensure we do not have an illegitimate government.

11.41am

Abbott slams ‘supine’ respect for SSM bill

Liberal MP Tony Abbott has again risen to put forward his concerns about same-sex marriage saying it was being done “on the run”.

He said both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition promised protections around freedom of religion would be in place.

“A promise was made by the leaders of this parliament and this promise has not been adequately delivered on,” Mr Abbott said.

Mr Abbott said had never heard members of the House showing such “supine respect” for a bill from the Senate like it was a “tablet of stone” and beyond delay or consideration.

“We don’t want to see new forms of discrimination in place of old ones that are rightly gone,” he said.

He said “injustices are happening this day”, noting the case of Catholic Archbishop of Hobart Julian Porteous and a Canberra women who was sacked from her work after a No post on Facebook.

“Do we want today to be a day of unity, or do we want today to be a day of division?” Mr Abbott said.

Archbishop Porteous was referred to the Australian Anti-Discrimination Commissioner for a booklet distributed to school families entitled “Don’t Mess With Marriage”. The complaint was eventually withdrawn without a finding.

11.26am

A ‘shield’ for views, not a ‘sword’ for bigotry

Politicians are now considering amendments from Liberal MP Andrew Hastie who has put forward changes to protect people and organisations with traditional views of marriage.

He said his amendments would provide a “shield” for their views so they did not fall foul of anti-vilification laws in states and territories.

It would also stop people from having to promote or support views contrary to their beliefs and allow parents to withdraw children from school classes not consistent with their beliefs.

He said the amendments would protect freedom of conscience but did not licence hate speech.

Protections would only operate around beliefs on marriage, it did not open the door to broader religious freedoms contrary to Australian values, and “it does not open the door to sharia law”.

But Labor MP Terri Butler said she did not support the amendments, describing them as a “radical departure” from existing Australian law.

“We’re talking here about new provisions that are unlike anything we have in Australian law,” she said.

While she acknowledged there could be merit in the amendments, they should be considered with a detailed review and submissions. She said the Ruddock review would be the ideal way to do this.

She also said she did not want to see the bill delayed further by amendments.

“Delay in the passage of marriage equality would break the nation’s heart,” she said.

“It’s manifestly unfair to ask people to wait longer for marriage equality.”

11.10am

Division called for Sukkar’s amendments

The Liberal MP’s amendments were not supported and unlike Tony Abbott, he decided to call for a division. For the record: 43 voted for the amendments, 97 against.

Applause rang out in the chamber as the numbers were read out — in an encouraging sign of what’s to come.

There’s four more amendments to be dealt with before a final vote.

10.56am

Growing optimism for decision today

Even the pollies are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, with the Greens MP reporting a good “feeling”.

Sitting in the chamber debating the marriage equality bill. Has the feeling we’re moving inexorably towards making equality a reality today... 🤞🏳️‍🌈 — Adam Bandt 🏳️‍🌈 (@AdamBandt) December 6, 2017

Labor’s Mark Dreyfus also dressed up for the occasion today.

10.44am

Appeal for amendments to be rejected

The Law Council of Australia has made a last-minute appeal for members to reject amendments: “The bill already strikes the right balance between protecting the right to religious freedom and right to be free from discrimination.”

10.27am

Tony Abbott calls for ‘unifying’ moment

The Liberal MP has risen to defend Michael Sukkar’s amendments saying almost five million people in Australia had voted No to same-sex marriage.

“It respects traditional marriage while allowing same sex marriage to take place,” he said.

He said protections for freedom of conscience, religion and parental choice would make the bill a “unifying occasion”.

Mr Sukkar’s amendments would have created two categories of marriage and would also have given new celebrants the ability to refuse to marry couples if they hold a “genuine religious or conscientious belief”.

Similar amendments moved in the Senate by Liberal senators James Paterson and David Fawcett were rejected.

Mr Abbott said existing celebrants will already be given this right and this should be extended to new celebrants.

Currently under the bill, two categories of celebrants would be created: “religious celebrants” who would be able to refuse to marry couples on religious grounds, and “civil celebrants” who would not.

The protection of religious freedoms will be dealt with separately next year after former immigration minister Philip Ruddock and a panel reviews whether Australian law adequately protects the human right to religious freedom.

But Mr Abbott said these should have been dealt with before politicians were asked to vote on the bill, as promised by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.

10.23am

It’s looking increasingly likely SSM bill will be passed today

Labor has said it will not be supporting any amendments.

“We need to get this done,” Labor’s Mark Dreyfus said.

MPs are currently considering an amendment from Liberal MP Michael Sukkar that would have created two categories of marriage, one between a “man and a woman”, and another between “two people”.

Both Labor and Greens have also said won’t support the amendments.

It looks like the bill will be voted on by lunchtime today.

10.05am

Greens try to pass amendments

Adam Bandt was also unsuccessful in getting changes passed to tighten rules around civil celebrants refusing to conduct same-sex marriages.

9.50am

Tony Abbott defends his amendment

In a tweet shortly after his motion was considered, Mr Abbott tweeted that he moved the amendment for those who take religious freedom seriously.

Mr Abbott’s amendments would have wrecked the SSM bill’s passage but he didn’t try to force them to a full vote.

The former Prime Minister said he relented out of respect for the Yes voters.

Out of respect for the millions of Australians who take religious freedom seriously I moved my amendment; out of respect for the millions who want the SSM bill swiftly passed I chose not to divide on it — Tony Abbott (@TonyAbbottMHR) December 6, 2017

9.40am

Tony Abbott’s amendment fails

Liberal MP Warren Entsch gave a final second reading speech on the bill and said a clerk had confirmed if an amendment from Tony Abbott was carried “it will stop the progress of the bill”.

Mr Abbott moved a rare “pious amendment” that would have halted debate and forced it to restart again.

Mr Abbott’s amendment was not supported and the bill has now moved to the next step.

Mr Entsch also called out Bob Katter’s speech last night, saying: “His pathetic attempts of humour, insensitivity and grossly misleading comments were devoid of any facts and were highly offensive, embarrassing and cringe-worthy.

“They need to be called out for what they are. His speech exemplifies what the LGBTI community have had to endure to so long.”

9.25am

Amendments to be considered

Several government MPs, including Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, have said they will support — or at least consider — amendments to be put forward by their conservative colleagues — namely Andrew Hastie and Michael Sukkar.

Labor will oppose any change, as will cabinet minister Christopher Pyne who branded some of the amendments “superfluous” and “unnecessary”.

If the bill passes unchanged from the one that cleared the Senate last week, it will become law.

If changes are successful, the bill will have to return to the Senate for approval.

7.30am

Bob Katter delivers bizarre speech on same-sex marriage

Just after 10pm last night Bob Katter decided he would join his colleagues in the House of Representatives and share his thoughts on same-sex marriage.

It was quite the eye-opener.

Mr Katter began his rambling address by criticising the debate as “drivel” and noting that no one seems to get married in North Queensland anyway.

“Down in the pub, in the real world, where I live and other people live, I walked into the pub and said, ‘Bobby, I’m going bush, mate, before they make it compulsory,’ and everyone roared laughing. But you don’t live in that world. You don’t live in that world where real people live. You live down here, where you listen to this incredible concoction of drivel.”

Mr Katter said he had been accused of being anti-homosexual but said people should read his book (“only $29 at all best-selling bookshops”) which mentioned a “humorous” story about a homosexual friend.

In another strange twist he then acknowledged he was not proud of his party being considered an anti-homosexual party.

“As a party — and I am not particularly proud of this — we started out our life with an advertisement, which was a most unpleasant advertisement. I agreed to it, so I will take the blame, along with everyone else. It established us as a very anti-homosexual party.”

Despite the admission, Mr Katter then went on to brag about how high the party’s vote had been in the Queensland election.

He later started rambling about genetics, AIDS and the “vanishing race”.

“The people advocating this proposition tonight, the LGBTIs, have maybe 60 years on their side. I have 3.5 million years of genetic programming on my side, because we human beings, they tell us, have been around for 3.5 million years,” he said.

“One thing that is absolutely certain is that we’ve all developed from heterosexual couples. That is one thing we know absolutely — up until the last 40 years, anyway.

“So, genetically, we are programmed that way.”

Mr Katter asked why Australia continuously had the highest male juvenile suicide rates in the world.

“There is something going wrong here. We have an extraordinary incidence of homosexual behaviour in Australia compared with other nations.”

Then made extraordinary allegations about children getting AIDS.

“You talk about equality. They wanted equality in the giving of blood. They said, ‘We as homosexuals have a right to give blood,’ so they did, and I think 72 children were injected with AIDS from the blood that was given. It was hushed up. It was amazing to me that it never got any publicity at all.”

I’m not saying that Bob Katter should be urgently assessed by a psychiatrist but I’m not not saying it. — Shannon Molloy (@sleemol) December 6, 2017

Was Bob Katter eaten by a crocodile and North Queensland instead sent an unhinged robot to replace him to speak on #marriageequality? — Middle Class Dad (@franksting) December 6, 2017

His bizarre address hit its zenith when Mr Katter started talking about Australia being a vanishing race.

“Mr Deputy Speaker, there is an ultimate statement upon a race of people, and that is that they simply vanish from the gene pool.

“If you take out my cousin-brothers, the First Australians, and if you take out the migrant population in Australia — recent migrants — then we have the lowest birthrate on earth.

“We are a vanishing race. Bob Birrell, the demographer from Melbourne, wrote an article in which he said that the current population of Australia is 22 million and within 100 years the population of Australia will be 7,000. I thought, ‘This is ridiculous!’ I went down to check it in the library. He said that when 20 Australians die they’re replaced by only 17 people, and if that happened five times over a century then we would go from 21 million or 22 million people — whatever it was at the time — down to seven million people.”

At this point, Leader of the House of Representatives, Christopher Pyne interjected: “Bobby, this is rubbish”.

Katter retorted: “I don’t know; you might be a member of the vanishing race. You’d better shut up because you will be shortly if I lose my temper. I finally conclude on this — ”

At which point Deputy Speaker Mark Coulton finally broke in: “Order! The member’s time has expired.”

To read the entire speech, click here.

megan.palin@news.com.au | @Megan_Palin