Claire Moore, Labor: "The zeal of people and groups in promoting the belief in what they call traditional marriage has in some cases crossed into real vilification and personal attack. I have been deeply sickened by comments and public forums allegedly based on the reasonable effort to raise awareness or promote certain beliefs, often using the word 'family'."



Penny Wong, Labor: "Many in our community have not witnessed the reality of lesbian and gay parenting and so are closed to the possibility that it might not be as dangerous as they might assume. That hesitation is a typically human one. It is hard to understand something which is not in the realm of your experience and not what you're used to — that goes for most of us. In fact, lesbian or gay parents want and have children for many of the same reasons that other parents do. And like all parents they do the best they can for the children they have."

Brian Greig, Australian Democrats: "I am conscious as I give this speech that I am not talking to those in this chamber or even those who might be listening elsewhere; I am speaking to researchers, students and scholars in the future — perhaps 10, 20 or 30 years down the track — who will be looking at theHansard debates over this in bewilderment, trying to understand how such an awful law could have happened."

Jacinta Collins, Labor: "I am trained theoretically as a statistician. To me, deviant means other than the norm. Unfortunately the interpretation I heard last year was that there was this enormous insult to homosexual people because they were being cast as deviants. I do not believe that that was the intent of this statement. I think the statement says that the norm for our society should be marriage as we understand it and that we need to apply care to how we deal with the issues over what is just and unjust discrimination to ensure that it does not undermine how we reinforce our norm for organising our community. That is what I think the meaning of this is."

Ron Boswell, Nationals: "Children should never be held up as trophies in an attempt to justify or enhance a lifestyle choice. Australian families are not the place for social experiments. Adults who participate in homosexual behaviour make that choice. That is their choice. As I said, I do not condone it; I do not condemn it. They make the choice for themselves but have no right to include children in that choice."

Kerry Nettle, Greens: "When I hear these issues debated in the Senate chamber, and hear some of the arguments put forward — and we have just heard many of them — I feel like I have gone through a time warp and am back in the Dark Ages."

Brian Harradine, Independent: "If we were to start changing the common understanding of marriage, you could expect to have representations made from people supporting the legal recognition of various relationships such as polygamy, polyandry, which is one woman and many men, and polyamory, which is a group marriage of varying numbers. The possibility of group marriages is not so farfetched ... A quick search of the Internet revealed at least two active polyamory groups in Australia."



Michael Forshaw, Labor: "To argue that the definition of 'marriage' should be expanded to include other forms of relationships, particularly same-sex relationships, is to destroy the definition of 'marriage'. It does not broaden it; it destroys it."

Bob Brown, Greens: "That is the next problem when you have a leader who is narrow-minded, who is divisive, who hates people of a certain category, but who says, 'Most of the rest of the people do, so I can justify that'."

Brown was then asked to withdraw his assertion that prime minister Howard "hates certain people".

Acting Deputy President: I would deem that as an unparliamentary expression, Senator Brown, and I ask you to withdraw.

Brown: No, I will not, because that is the truth. That is what is being expressed here today. This is hate legislation. Acting Deputy President: Senator Brown, I ask you to comply with the ruling of the chair. Brown: I will not, because I am stating the situation as I see it. I have been cogently developing this argument. This is not a Prime Minister who loves everybody regardless— Acting Deputy President: Senator Brown, I have asked you to withdraw. Brown: Yes, you have. Acting Deputy President: Are you going to withdraw? Brown: No, I will not withdraw.

Twelve years later, the situation has changed enormously.