In November last year the federal parliament passed a motion from Greens MP Adam Bandt calling on members to take the pulse of constituents on gay marriage. This morning, a selection of MPs reported back. Prime Minister Julia Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott were not among them.
Bandt congratulated colleagues who chose to participate, calling it a “good day for those who believe in love”. Bandt’s electorate of Melbourne was overwhelmingly supportive of same-sex marriage, with only one out of 475 respondents to his survey opposed to equal marriage rights. Bandt called it a “top priority issue” for his seat of Melbourne, and that there was almost universal support for the Greens stance, expressing confidence that “we’ll achieve full equality in the life of this parliament”. Bandt also stated that the prime minister and leader of opposition were “out of step with mainstream public opinion”.
Crikey takes a look at their speeches of the nearly 30 MPs who reported to the parliament:
Click here for gay wedding resources in Australia.
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