Page 2905 - Week 08 - Thursday, 17 August 2017
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But there is hope. I also found at Cooleman Court when I was there last Friday that there was a broad warmth and support for marriage equality in the community. One mum came up and told me that her son was gay and that she was definitely going to vote yes. She wanted to see her son marry and have the same happiness as everyone else. I told her that I was gay and that we would be fighting hard over the next six weeks to get it done. I find a lot of support in our inclusive and compassionate Canberra community amongst the young, the old, tradies, business owners, mothers, fathers, grandparents, those from religious groups and multicultural groups. We must be buoyed by this support and we must support each other during the campaign ahead.
Labor took a leadership role to campaign for a yes vote, not because we like the postal survey or the idea of it but because we will always fight to end discrimination and provide equality before the law, whether it is in the Crimes Act, in our schools, in our marriage laws and now through this wasteful postal survey.
Labor and Rainbow Labor are just some of the groups that are campaigning for marriage equality. The campaign for marriage equality is a community campaign, a broad-based positive campaign that will involve thousands of Australians from all walks of life. We are relying on broad community support to win, and we will. I know that this is not a binding vote and that it may not change even a single vote in the commonwealth parliament, but we will campaign all the way up until the next election if we have to, when Labor will legislate on marriage equality within 100 days of taking office.
Finally, I want to speak to the community. If you support marriage equality then I ask you to do a few simple things. If you are not correctly enrolled, you will not get to vote for marriage equality. To make sure you can have your say, please update your enrolment at www.aec.gov.au. You need to be correctly enrolled by Thursday, 24 August—next week. Vote yes and make sure that your friends, your colleagues, your teammates and your relatives vote yes. And if you support marriage equality then I ask you to sign up to volunteer and help us with this campaign. The equality campaign will be on the ground campaigning for the right to marry and we need your help and your support.
Madam Acting Speaker, I am proud to stand with other Australians who believe in marriage equality. The fastest path to marriage equality is through a free vote in the parliament. Now that the postal survey is going ahead, vote yes and campaign for yes. It is time for marriage equality in Australia.
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (12.11): I rise today in support of the motion, at a time of uncertainty and debate about the rights of LGBTIQ Australians to equal marriage including, of course, those living here in the ACT. From my perspective and from the Greens’ perspective the question of whether or not we will support LGBTIQ Canberrans has never been up for debate. The Greens have always stood up for marriage equality. Every Green MP has voted for marriage equality every time it has come before an Australian parliament. We supported the ACT government at the time it introduced marriage equality legislation in 2013. In fact, it was part of the relevant parliamentary agreement. And we will do so again if the ACT government ever
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