Page 443 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 16 February 2016
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dignity of LGBTIQ Australians. In the ACT we have shown that we are ready to take this step as a parliament and as a community. I am proud of what we pushed for, and I will keep working with all of the amazing supporters and advocates in our community until, in Chris and Dylan’s words, “We get this done already.”
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (4.06): On 22 October 2013 this Assembly passed the Marriage Equality Bill, and I think that was a very proud day for this territory. It was a day of great joy; it was a day of great happiness. There was a sense of respect that flowed from that vote. As members who were here will recall, we had a very full public gallery. We had a further crowd sitting out in the reception room. They were obviously supporters of the bill, but the sense of pride that came from people who were in that room was really a very special moment. It is not often in this place where you can truly feel that direct feedback from people about legislation that we have passed in this place. Most legislation goes through fairly ordinarily in this place, but on that day we were witness to some true joy and relief that that legislation had been passed. Shortly after we saw the ceremonies begin to take place. Again they were occasions of great happiness and it was a moment in which we had genuine equality in this territory.
It has been a long road to equality for LGBTIQ Australians, and there are still many battles to be fought. It was 20 years ago when former Greens leader Bob Brown became the first openly gay member of the parliament of Australia. Not long after that Christine Milne led reform in Tasmania by decriminalising homosexuality. The fact that those are points of note tells you how far we have had to come and some of the challenges that still remain. But what I can say is that the Greens have always stood up for marriage equality and we have supported the right of people, no matter their gender identification or the nature of their relationship, to choose marriage if they wish. Every Green MP has voted for marriage equality every time it has come before a parliament. We are proud of that record, and it is a record we intend to continue to stand by.
The ACT has been the only jurisdiction to achieve marriage equality. Others have tried but have not been able to get the support of the majority in their parliaments. Clearly the High Court formed a ruling on this. I noted Mr Hanson’s attempt to rewrite history during his remarks earlier today. It is quite clear that at the time the ACT legislation was passed there was a contested legal opinion; there were people of high legal standing, people respected for their opinions, who strongly argued that the ACT did have the authority and the power to take the decision and pass the legislation the way we did. Clearly the High Court disagreed. We know there were lawyers before the event arguing both ways. For Mr Hanson to come in here and paint it like it was always going to be the case is a distortion of history to suit his own agenda. The reality is there were people who thought that the ACT could do it, and that is why this Assembly—at least the majority of this Assembly—had the courage to proceed with that piece of legislation.
Since that time we have seen many countries around the world achieve marriage equality. That has been a great thing. Our near neighbours New Zealand, of course, went down that pathway as well, and that has given great encouragement to the campaign here in Australia, because it is only a matter of time until we have marriage
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