MARK DREYFUS MP

Marriage equality will happen in Australia. It is not a question of if, but when and how.

The history of Australian law, of the progress of Australian justice, is in so many ways the history of Aboriginal empowerment.

Whatever the stated policies and values of our conservative opponents, their basic impulse has only ever been to fight the labour movement and then the Labor Party. To refuse our demands. To keep us from government. To obstruct and delay.

The arts define who we are, as a modern, innovative, confident and outward looking society, because it is through the arts that we express ourselves; explain ourselves; how to some extent at least, understand ourselves.

Isaacs is an electorate that is blessed with just about everything. We have the beach and the bay, we have rivers and open fields, and sporting clubs abound. If you want to try anything, from football to fencing, from kayaking to kite-surfing, Isaacs is your place. Ours is a community that loves the beach, loves the outdoors and loves to be active.

The screen industry does far more than tell Australian stories that move us, make us laugh, and help define us as a nation. Your industry is also a powerhouse of economic activity, whether its local film productions, TV drama series, or the enormous US productions that come here for the quality of crews and a host of other reasons that makes Australia such a desirable place to shoot.

When we legislate in this place on the topic of citizenship, then, we must be very cautious. We must be mindful of our obligations under international human rights laws, and of the essential values those laws codify.

For those who have sought to somehow justify the violence, let me say that whatever the grievances of the Palestinians, indiscriminate murder will never be a legitimate form of political protest. It is terrorism, and it is abhorrent.

Sir Zelman was part of a very special generation of Australian legal academics who in the wake of the Second World War assumed leading roles not just in academia but in broader public life.

This may be a simple piece of legislation, but it tells you a lot about this government. The process by which the government came to introduce this bill tells you a lot about how this government is run and what its priorities are. The government rhetoric around this bill tells you a lot about its politics and about the way it wants to conduct public debate. Most importantly, the substance of this little bill tells you a lot about this government's values and about what sort of country it wants to build.