Tasmania's House of Assembly has today become the nation's first house of parliament to give in-principle support for same-sex marriage.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Of the 22 MHAs in Parliament with a vote, 13 supported the Greens' motion to support marriage equality and called on the Commonwealth to amend the law to allow that.
Greens and Labor politicians spoke about equality, human rights, Christian values and the importance of setting a community example as leaders.
Premier Lara Giddings acknowledged there were still mixed views in the community but that the Tasmanian ALP had supported marriage equality at its last two state conferences.
"I want our community to celebrate equality and diversity and demonstrate respect towards each other,'' she said.
Greens Leader Nick McKim said: "How can we, as legislators and community leaders say to people in the community: 'Don't discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation', when the laws themselves that we create discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation.''
The Liberal Party voted against the motion as a bloc, with Opposition Leader Will Hodgman the only Liberal MHA to speak.
Mr Hodgman described the motion as inconsequential grand-standing.
"We support the definition of marriage as within the Marriage Act (1961) through Commonwealth legislation,'' he said.
"To say we're leading the nation (by passing this motion) is tenuous to say we're leading the nation on this.''