Senator RICE (Victoria) (10:05): It is very important that we are discussing this issue today. It is why the Greens have moved this motion, because every day we delay ending discrimination in marriage is a day that thousands of Australians around Australia are suffering that discrimination. There is no doubt that the existing Marriage Act is discriminatory. It needs to be changed, and the majority of the Australian population support that change. Yesterday was a very sad day in Australian politics when the Liberal and National parties decided to deny their members of parliament a free vote on this issue, an issue of conscience. The Greens have a free vote on this, but we agree—every Greens MP, in every vote, in every parliament, every time—and we recognise that the issue of allowing equal marriage is an issue of human rights; it is an issue of ending discrimination; it is an issue of ensuring fair treatment of all Australians. I am proud to stand in this place and represent lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people. The discrimination that LGBTIQ people face in their everyday lives is real and confronting, and every day that we have institutionalised discrimination against them by not having equal marriage is a day that that discrimination—the hurt and their feeling of being considered different from the rest of the community—is real. Every day that we delay is a day that there is further suffering. Every day that we delay is a day that Australia is still lagging behind the rest of the world in recognising this as an issue of discrimination, an issue of fair treatment, an issue of allowing love to prevail so that people can feel that they are being treated the same as other Australians and have the freedom to love the person they love—to marry the person they love. I feel that I am in a very special place, in a same-sex partnership, and in one of the very few marriages in Australia legally recognised in Australia as a same-sex couple. I want other Australian couples—other lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex couples—to be able to share that right, to be able to share their love, to be able to declare their love in front of their friends and their family in their community, and to be able to say, 'Our love is equal to everybody else's.' Senator O'Sullivan: But you don't want anyone else's views expressed, just your own. The PRESIDENT: Order on my right! Senator RICE: This is affecting thousands of Australians. In the year that I have been in the Senate I have had hundreds of people supporting our position of standing up for their rights. It affects young people; it affects old people. Just this morning there was an older man, Gerard—a 62-year-old man—who rang ABC radio in Melbourne, in tears, because he was so upset about this further delay. He is not in good health, and he is worried that he is going to die before he is going to have a chance to marry his partner, the man that he loves. You think of people like Gerard—there are people like Gerard all around the country who are being denied the ability to have their human rights accepted and their love accepted like everybody else in Australia. There is a young friend of mine who has just got engaged to his bloke. They looked so happy. In the photos I saw of them they looked radiant. He was hoping to be able to set a marriage date so that they could be married in front of their friends and family and have that celebrated and supported by the community. Yesterday's decision would have been an absolutely tragic blow to him. The other thing happening is that people like my friend are likely to go off to New Zealand to get married before the end of the year. We are losing so much. It is a ridiculous situation for us to be in, here in Australia, when every other English-speaking country in the world accepts equal marriage. We are the laggards. We are being left behind. But it is a matter of time. We know that love will prevail; we know that love will win out. We will have equal marriage in Australia. The sooner it happens, and the sooner this parliament catches up, the better a country we will be.