AMANDA KELLER:
Yesterday there was love in the air, you could feel it. 61.6 per cent of the nation said ‘yes’ for same-sex marriage.
Now the man who has a very important job for the next few weeks to push this through Parliament is our Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who joins us now.
Good morning Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Morning, wasn’t it a great day?
AMANDA KELLER:
What an emotional, loving day. I think the emotion of it took a lot of people by surprise yesterday.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah, you know, I think I said to you once before, this is going to be a great uniting exercise in democracy. Every Australian had their say, there were quite a few people who didn’t want me to give everyone their say, but we did. Everyone got their say and 80 per cent of them took it up and told us what they thought and 61.6 per cent said ‘yes’.
‘Yes’ to marriage equality, ‘yes’ to fairness, ‘yes’ to commitment, ‘yes’ to love.
AMANDA KELLER:
Yeah.
BRENDAN JONES:
So can this happen before Christmas? Can it all be sorted before Christmas?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh, look it absolutely can. It’s a free vote so members and senators you know, are not being bound by party discipline, so you’ll see Parliament at its very best.
Debate on the Bill is starting in the Senate today, this morning. It will complete in the week of the 27th and then it will come down to the House in the week of the 4th.
BRENDAN JONES:
Malcolm one of the concerns – so people will say, for example: “Oh I don’t want my kids talking, being taught these crazy things in schools or being discriminated about, being told that they have to be gay.” That’s some of the -
AMANDA KELLER:
That’s crazy talk.
BRENDAN JONES:
That’s what some of the ‘no’ campaign was saying. Is there anything in that that has any validity?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I mean there’s a whole host of amendments being talked about and we’ve just got to see them one at a time. But you know for example - I’ll give you an example.
Some people have said on the ‘no’, some people have said that they’re concerned that the bill will mean that you won’t be able to express the view that marriage - that it is wrong for people of the same sex to be married. In other words, your churches would not be able to say that - well that’s nonsense.
People, the Catholic Church takes the view that you can’t get married if one of the partners has been divorced, but it’s legal under the law of the land obviously, for divorced people to marry. Every church says adultery is bad – and it certainly isn’t a good idea if you want to maintain your marriage – but it certainly isn’t against the law. So there is no, there is nothing in this proposal that would restrict free speech about issues of morality or religion. People express those views all the time and always will.
AMANDA KELLER:
What about members of your own party, some of those members that didn’t want this, didn’t want the ‘yes’ vote? Can you say to us now that they will not prevent this happening?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes I absolutely can. There are a number of people who strongly campaigned against same sex marriage being legalised who said they will vote ‘yes’, respecting the will of the people. They’re others who have said they will abstain, I don’t know of any who will still vote ‘no’. There might be one or two.
But the overwhelming majority of Parliament, both sides and crossbenchers will support same sex marriage being legalised. In accordance with the directions we have from the people for whom we work, the Australian public.
BRENDAN JONES:
Exactly. I like when you crack the whip Malcolm, it’s so empowering. What about the ABS guy? He really milked his moment yesterday didn’t he?
PRIME MINISTER:
Didn’t you think it was great? Because he knew – let us be honest Jonesy – he knew that anything he said after he gave the result, no one was going to listen to.
[Laughter]
So he had to get in all of the messages about the great work the ABS is doing, the website, all of that stuff, before he gave the number.
[Laughter]
AMANDA KELLER:
He could’ve used it to sell a used car perhaps, get rid of the junk in his garage.
BRENDAN JONES:
Yeah he could have, gotten rid of heaps of stuff.
PRIME MINISTER:
Exactly right.
BRENDAN JONES:
Well it’s a red letter day Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
It is.
BRENDAN JONES:
Thank you.
AMANDA KELLER:
A rainbow letter day.
PRIME MINISTER:
I’m so happy. I’m so proud that we really are the nation of the fair go once again.
BRENDAN JONES:
Malcolm Turnbull, thank you for joining us.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks a lot.
[ENDS]