Equality campaign for the #PostYourYES day of action

ALEX GREENWICH, CO-CHAIR AUSTRALIAN MARRIAGE EQUALITY: Hi, I'm Alex Greenwich from the Yes campaign and today we're joined by many volunteers. We’re also joined by Jess and Christy, her mum Lisa and we're also grateful to be joined by Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, Senator Penny Wong, and Christopher Pyne.

 Australians have before them the most exciting opportunity, the opportunity to shape our country by voting for our national values of fairness and equality. Millions of postal surveys have already been sent out with millions more on the way. And with those envelopes are the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of everyday Aussies who simply want to marry the person they love in the country that we all cherish. So from today we are launching our national 'Get Out The Vote' campaign to empower all supporters of marriage equality to vote Yes. Vote Yes for their friends, their family members, their colleagues, and their team-mates and to vote Yes for a fair go for everyone. 

 So from today we will be door-knocking as many doors as possible. We will be ringing all our relos and we will be doing everything we can to make sure that 'Yes' is a success. And let's hope that come 11:30AM on the 15th of November our nation can finally come together and celebrate getting this done. Vote Yes.

 CHRISTY: Hello. My name is Christy, and this is Jess. We're just an ordinary couple from Adelaide, and we just want to encourage people to vote Yes because it affects us and it affects so many people around Australia as well. And it’s the right thing to do because we're just normal humans and we share the same humanity as everybody else, as people walking up and down Rundle Mall as people in Sydney, everywhere, we're all just exactly the same. And that why I believe and Jess believes that we should be able to get married, and with this vote, you should vote Yes.

 

LISA: My name is Lisa and I'm representing a small group of mums called Mums and Friends for Equality in Marriage. We all feel like we needed to stand up for our children and have open conversations about their values and their rights.

 

Why do I believe in marriage equality? I have a thirty-seven year old son who is gay who I have walked, at times, a quite treacherous path with. And I had the privilege two months ago to attend his wedding in the US, and I saw love is love, and I saw that love can equal marriage for gay men and I saw the value in it. So please use this opportunity to vote. Tick Yes, take the action, post, and don't be docile. Let's get on and get this going.

 

CHRISTOPHER PYNE, MINISTER FOR DEFENCE INDUSTRY: Well I'm very pleased to be here this morning with Alex Greenwich, Penny Wong, Sarah Hanson-Young, Jess and Christine and their mother, the mother who represents the mothers for, the parents for marriage equality.

 

I want to live in a country where nobody feels like a second class citizen. Where people aren't made to feel uncomfortable about their race, their colour, their creed or their sexual orientation. To me this is a very important moment in Australia's history. Because for too long we've tolerated people who are gay being made to feel like second class citizens in our country.

 

So I do strongly support the plebiscite that the Prime Minister and the government have managed to successfully get organised and happening right now. Because like a federal election, I want every Australian to have a say in the outcome of this result. I am very confident that the Australian people will vote Yes in this postal plebiscite, because as a people I think we all want our neighbours, our friends, our families to feel like they are full members of our community. And to be able to have the opportunity that same-sex couples should have - the same as differently sex couples - to marry. It doesn't mean they have to get married, but if they want to get married that ticks an almost final box in complete equality across our nation. We expect that for people of different colour, different religions, but for sexual persuasion for too long we have tolerated a difference in our community.

 

Now there are some people in this debate who want to be frightened of the others whom we live with, our neighbours. We have to say no to those people by returning a Yes vote in this postal plebiscite and taking part in this major social change. It’s happened all around the world. Dozens of countries have said Yes to marriage equality and the sky has not fallen in, in fact, they are stronger communities.

 

In about two weeks my wife and I, and another married couple, are going to celebrate our fiftieth birthdays and a weekend away. We’re taking a third couple with us, friends of mine for thirty years, friends of yours too Chris, Penny knows who they are as well. They are a non-married same sex couple who I’ve known for thirty years. They have been together for longer than my wife and I. It’s time they have the right, if they want to, to be married in a full way in our community.

 

I’m hoping that by the time this plebiscite has been done, by the end of the year, the House of Representatives and the Senate will have passed this law, and we can all just get on with it.

 SENATOR PENNY WONG, LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION IN THE SENATE:  Thank you very much for coming. It’s fantastic to be here with a cross-party group, members of the community, people who all want to stand up and say Yes to equality.

 

We had a rally here in Adelaide yesterday and it was a rally where you saw a lot of energy and enthusiasm - we need to convert that into something very important and that is people voting. We need to get out the vote, we need people to campaign, we need people to talk to their friends and relatives and neighbours to convince them to vote Yes – Yes for equality and to ensure they actually go and post their survey.

 

This is a debate that has been going on for a long time and we’ve seen over recent weeks those who oppose equality wanting to make this an argument about everything else. This is about one thing. This is about whether two people two people who love each other can get married. That’s it.

 

If we are successful, as Christopher said, the sky is not going to fall in the next day. What will probably happen is life will go on as normal for pretty much everybody, except we would have made a profound statement about acceptance, and inclusion, and respect. 

 

I firmly believe that the majority of the Australian people are fair-minded people. The majority of the Australian people hold the principle of equality very close. Most people believe in the fair go, but we will only convert that goodwill into the outcome we all want if we campaign, if we get out the vote, if we vote Yes, and we all post our ballots.

 

SARAH HANSON-YOUNG, GREENS SENATOR FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA: I think it’s absolutely wonderful to be here today with Penny Wong and Christopher Pyne and members of the Adelaide community who desperately want to get this vote done. And what this shows is that love is above politics. There is a growing and unifying voice across this country from all sides, who desperately want to allow this marriage vote to be a success and to get it done.

 

In the rest of the world where marriage equality has become law, it hasn’t created a situation where the sky has fallen in, in fact the sun shines even brighter. We have got loving couples being able to have their relationships recognised under law and to be given the same decency and respect as everybody else.

 

This is about love, this is about loving couples having the right to marry and despite what some in the No campaign want to make this about, we have to resist that. We have to be out there, getting out the vote, making sure people tick the Yes box and get it back.

 

The biggest challenge that we have got is making sure people understand that their vote matters. This isn’t just a one off survey that isn’t important. Every votes matters and that means every Yes vote matters and every letter posted back matters too. Make sure, over the next week you call every one of your friends and family and make sure they have ticked the Yes box and have posted it back. There is no point leaving it lying on the kitchen bench or stuck on the fridge, it won’t make a difference there, but it will make a difference if you put it back into that post box.

 

For a long, long time many of us in the Parliament have desperately wanted to see this reform happen and I know that the community has been urging us to get it done. Now is the time for us to prove together as a unified nation that we can. Come the 15th of November, I want to be rejoicing that we will move forth legislation in the Parliament to remove discrimination and that we put a big Yes stamp on marriage equality in this country. It’s time to get it done. Let's make the biggest effort over the next few weeks; vote and post.

 

JOURNALIST: Obviously this is a big event and nationally it's gained a lot of attention. But is there perhaps a reason to give pause to the fact you've got a long way to go even if there is a strong Yes vote, and how do you sort of parlay all the political capital you've attained into the next step?

 

PYNE: Well my view is if there's a Yes vote, and I'm pretty sure that there will be, I hope there will be, I mean we'll campaign and make sure there is. I'm not taking anything for granted, but the campaign is very well organised and I sense a great feeling of optimism amongst those people who want change.

 

Then after the Yes vote, assuming it happens, events will move very quickly. Dean Smith already has a Private Member's bill that's been drafted, it's already been through a committee phase and been improved. The protections that can be put in the bill for religious institutions and for those who conscientiously object to taking part in marriages of this kind are quite easily put together.

 

As Sarah said, as Penny said, as Alex said, the only decision we have to make in this postal plebiscite is 'do you think people of the same sex should be able to marry?'. That is the only question we have. The rest is not beyond the wit of the Parliament. We've put aside enough sitting weeks at the end of the year for the timing of the plebiscite to ensure that it can be all over and done with by Christmas and that we can all get back to our lives. And can I say, as Penny said, the sky won't fall in, but a lot of people will be very happy to be able to be treated in the same way as every other Australian.

 

JOURNALIST: And speaking about history, what do you make of Cory Bernardi saying that he will in fact be on the right side of history?

 

PYNE: Well look, there are people in this debate on the No side who want us to be frightened of the otherness in our community. That has been a hallmark of ultraconservatives for centuries; to sow fear in the community, whether it's against our neighbours within our country or those from overseas or those of different cultures.

 

We live in a world today where we reject that kind of fear. And if Senator Bernardi or anybody else thinks that is the best way of getting a No vote, by negatively campaigning, well good luck to them, but I'm campaigning on the side of positive social change. A social change that will mean that everyone in our community will feel like first-class citizens. 

 

I go to citizenship ceremonies a lot as a local Member of Parliament and one of the things I always say at those - and I've been to them with Penny in fact speaking for Labor - is that those people who are becoming citizens will be full citizens of our community. But that hasn't been completely true because they couldn't, if they were same-sex attracted, have the same rights and opportunities that I have. We're going to change that in a positive way. People who want to be negative, there's a percentage of a vote for those people in the community, but let's hope it isn't the majority. 

 

JOURNALIST: And what do you make of John Howard urging conservative Liberals to [inaudible].

 

PYNE: Well that's a matter for them. As you can see many Liberals are strongly supporting the Yes campaign, there's 'Libs-Nats for Yes', we're well organised, we're getting out there. Primarily we want people to fill in their ballot papers and send them back. It's important we have as many people vote as possible, and as many people who vote Yes as possible. I'll leave the No campaign to run their own show.

 

JOURNALIST: Are you disappointed that more of your Liberal colleagues aren’t here with you today?

 

PYNE: No, because I was the one that was invited to represent the Liberals. If there had been more here I’d have been happy for to be here but I’m the person who was invited to represent the Liberal Party here today. But many others would have been I’m sure because most of them are Yes voters.

 

JOURNALIST: My questions is the same as I’ve asked Chris – do you think there’s enough political momentum to get this disposed of?

 

WONG: Absolutely. I think if we can get a Yes vote if the sentiment in the community can be translated to the vote, I’ll work with the Coalition, with the Greens, with every party in the Parliament to get a bill through, and we can get it done. As you’re seeing today, we can get it done.