NATION Senate vote in favour of SSM
AFTER 20 failed attempts, a same- sex marriage Bill has for the first time succeeded in Federal Parliament.
Liberal senator Dean Smith’s largely unamended Bill was yesterday passed by the Senate in a 43 to 12 vote, leaving only one more hurdle before gay marriage is legal in Australia.
Senator Smith’s Bill was supported by several senior Coalition ministers, including Education Minister Simon Birmingham, Defence Minister Marise Payne and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann.
More than a dozen senators abstained from the vote.
There was applause and embraces from many in the Upper House as the Bill sailed through.
Labor Senate leader Penny Wong said the Bill’s passage was a historic moment.
However, the failure of proposed amendments for people with objections to gay marriage left some in the Coalition fuming, with Nationals MP Andrew Broad accusing Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of “a clear failure of leadership”.
Mr Broad said he would have moved amendments of his own once the legislation was debated in the House of Representatives next week, but claimed there was no point.
“It’s kind of a done deal, because if they did get up they’d go back to the Senate and get knocked over,” he said.
“And so this is where a lack of leadership from the Coalition, the executive of the Coalition and the Prime Minister has let down many Australians.”
Queensland MP George Christensen backed Mr Broad.
“A true leader would have sought to capture the will of the people and protect freedoms, not this hands- off approach,” he wrote on Facebook.
However, Attorney- General George Brandis, who backed the legislation and made a passionate speech during the debate, said he was “more proud than I have ever been” of Australian democracy.
“It is well known that some years ago, some time ago, I was not a supporter of the plebiscite, but I am so glad it happened this way,” Senator Brandis said.
“I am so glad that we involved every man and woman in Australia in this historic decision.”
The same- sex marriage Bill looks all but certain to pass after a lengthy debate in the Lower House next week.
Several Coalition senators who had opposed gay marriage or who had argued for stronger protections for religious and conscientious objectors eventually voted in favour yesterday. A NSW National Parks worker died and two others were seriously injured in a rock slide as they worked to make a Blue Mountains walking track safe yesterday.
Bushwalkers described a sound like “dynamite going off” and a rush of rocks before a man screamed.
The three National Parks contractors were identifying hazards on the National Pass walking track at Wentworth Falls, which had been closed for three months because of the “extreme hazard”.
As the men, all wearing harnesses to suspend them over the rock face, worked to identify the dangers, a sudden landslide brought parts of the sandstone escarpment 10m above crashing down on them, killing the 36- year- old contractor.
His colleague, 27, received leg and pelvic injuries and their 26- year- old co- worker suffered multiple fractures.
Fifteen ambulances, including special operations team paramedics, and three rescue helicopters and NSW Police were part of a multi- agency team to respond to the accident in the rugged terrain.
An ambulance spokesman said it took officers 45 minutes to walk to the remote accident site on a track 100m below the cliff top and 100m above the ground.
The injured men were winched from the scene by helicopter and taken to Westmead and St George Hospitals for treatment. Police Superintendent Darryl Jobson said the dead man’s body would remain under police guard at the scene overnight until experts had assessed how to safely recover it.