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Australian Parliament allows same-sex marriage
Posted On Dec 07 2017
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The votes in favour of the bill were not even counted as a majority was not questioned.
AUSTRALIAN Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has hailed the passage of same-sex marriage legislation in Canberra as a “huge success” in a “day of joy”.
The first major hurdle to a change in policy was overcome on November 15 when more than 60 per cent of Australians voted in favour of same-sex marriage in a voluntary ballot.
“The government is accountable in question time and so is the opposition so we will all be accountable in question time today as we are every day that parliament sits”. “Marriage equalityis finally the law of the land”.
The country is now the 24th in the world to allow same-sex couples to marry, according to Pew Research.
Marriage equality campaigners have fought for years for Thursday’s vote.
Since Monday, 118 Members of Parliament gave speeches in the House, debating their point of view on the Bill. Under the existing marriage act, civil celebrants must ensure the couple who are getting married utter the sentence, “I call upon the persons here present to witness that I, (insert name here), take thee, (insert their name here), to be my lawful wedded wife (or husband)”. In the Senate, voting on this bill took place a week earlier. The 500 or so people in the gallery were vocal in their disapproval of the amendments.
The legislation, drafted by Liberal Senator Dean Smith, passed through the upper house last week without any changes.
The law will come into effect in the new year.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten also spoke ahead of vote, saying: “Australia, we are going to make marriage equality a reality in minutes”.
There are many within the Turnbull government who feel cheated none of their changes were successful and who feel they were speaking on behalf of five million “no” voters.
From heartfelt to bizarrely offensive, the debates to allow same-sex marriage couples to marry became emotionally charged ahead of the final vote on same-sex marriage on December 7.
