Australia has done it,” Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told Parliament. Thorpe thanked “our straight brothers and sisters” for strongly backing marriage equality in the two-month postal survey. The government has appointed a panel to examine how to safeguard religious freedoms once gay marriage is a reality in Australia. “It is now our job as members of Parliament to pass a fair bill that does not extend or create any new discriminations,” an emotional government lawmaker Warren Entsch, who helped draft the bill, told Parliament. Several gay marriage opponents in Turnbull’s conservative coalition have regarded marriage equality as inevitable and have welcomed an end to an issue that has long divided the government ranks.

Source: Egypt Independent December 07, 2017 14:03 UTC