Senator MILNE (Tasmania) (17:42): I rise tonight to support the proposition that there should be no discrimination in Australia on any basis. We should not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, religion or sexuality. I can tell you that, when I was first elected to the Tasmanian parliament in 1989, people could be jailed for 21 years for being gay. Tasmania had the worst laws in the country at that time. We campaigned strongly to end that, and I am very proud of the fact that in 1997 it was my private member's bill that achieved gay law reform in Tasmania. We put up with an awful lot of ignorant statements about what it would do in Tasmania if that were changed, and of course none of that came to pass. It was a great strength because it brought society together and it started to end discrimination. We have had discrimination for a very long time. We used to have a situation where interracial marriages were banned. That was deemed to be some sort of appropriate way to behave, and eventually we got rid of that. I had hoped that we would get to the point of having an end to discrimination on any basis in Australia by the turn of the century, but actually we are 15 years beyond that and we should be moving on it now. One of the proudest moments I have had in recent years was marching with my gay son at Mardi Gras a few years ago. I marched on the PFLAG float—PFLAG stands for parents and families of the LGBTI community. The reason I marched with them is that I wanted to make a strong statement to those young people, particularly throughout rural and regional Australia, and say to them that there are people in this federal parliament who do not believe in discrimination who think those young people have the same rights as everybody else, that human rights mean something, that equality under the law means something, that love is love and that we do not make a decision or judgement about one person's love for another being less or more. Love is love and we should be celebrating the fact that people love each other enough to want to commit to each other by going through a marriage ceremony. So I stand here very strongly committed to marriage equality in Australia. I want to see that happen as soon as possible. I have two boys. One of them was able to marry and one of them is not. How can that be just in Australia? As a mother, why should I not be able to attend the weddings of both of my sons? Why is that unacceptable? For people to talk about their own marriages, great, I am glad. But that does not preclude other people having the same opportunities to marry. It is not a justification to discriminate against other people because you like the way your marriage is and do not think that anybody else should be able to have the experience of being able to be married to the person they love for whatever reasons you think. That is why I have never believed that a conscience vote is the way this should go because it is an issue of discrimination to me. Nevertheless if this is the way that we will get it through then this is the way that we will do it. But it does not strike me as appropriate that if, as a political party, you do not believe in the discrimination against women, for example, why would you support discrimination against somebody on the basis of their sexuality? That does not make sense. I am proud to have been part of a long movement that has supported marriage equality and an end to discrimination in Australia. I say to all of those young people out there who might be suffering because they know they are being discriminated against and who find it difficult in the communities in which they live: take heart, stay strong because the day is coming when we will end this discrimination in Australia, and we will be able to celebrate as the Irish have done recently, as people throughout the world have done. I look forward to that day and I will be there with that community around Australia that just want to say, 'Discrimination has no place in this country, love is love and we look to being part of celebrating that.'