This year we said yes to equality; we said yes to love.

Senator Richard Di Natale

I am so profoundly happy that we can finish our parliamentary year knowing that our country has changed for the better, and that our laws will now reflect the views of the Australian community.

The results of the postal survey and the passing of the marriage equality legislation in both houses is something we can all be proud of. To those who in recent months and over many years have marched, campaigned, lobbied, spoken out, door knocked, fundraised, and fought to make equality a reality: thank you.

It would be remiss of me to reflect on the postal survey without acknowledging the impact these last few months have had on our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer friends and family. For some, the impacts of the survey will be long lasting and for many this legislation does not fix the decades of hurt, discrimination, and trauma that has come before it. For this, I am truly sorry.

But what we do know is that we will never turn back. We now have an opportunity to consign these exclusive, discriminatory, shameful laws to the dustbin and to usher in a more compassionate and inclusive era in our nation's history; to tell a different story about ourselves and who we are; to act now not just for us but for future generations, for our children who will no longer need to experience the discrimination and hate that so many before them have had to experience.

This year we said yes to equality; we said yes to love.

Richard

Following are quotes from our team during the debating on the Bill.

For so long lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people have only been able to dream of marriage and equality under the law. Marriage has been out of reach. Marriage has been denied. Equality has not been granted in our country's laws. I am almost overwhelmed that this dream is on the cusp of becoming a reality, because Australians voted yes. I thank them so much for doing so. To my family and me, and to so many LGBTIQ Australians, it means that our dreams will soon come true. It means that our love, our relationships and our families will be equal under the law. It means that LGBTIQ people will feel safer to hold the hand of their partner when they walk down the street.  

The last two months have been hard for LGBTIQ people. Our identities, our relationships and our lives have been dissected and analysed and talked about. We've been told that we're not normal; our relationships are not normal; our families are not normal. For my wife, Penny, and me, people's blatant transphobia was on full display, with people challenging Penny's trans identity and with offensive attacks on our marriage and our love. But we didn't need a yes vote to know that we are worthy of equality. Our community is one of the strongest that there is. We're more resilient than you know. We stand here on the shoulders of our LGBTIQ elders, in power and in love. We have endured.

Janet Rice

Discrimination to some demeans us all; because equality is a symbol of a fair, caring and progressive society; because people know that equality in one's family is as important as equality in a country; and because we all have members of our families, our friends and our workplaces who deserve to be treated equally—equally under the law and in the eyes of society. Some may say that marriage is simply symbolic and that that doesn't matter. They've missed the point. Marriage is one of the most important symbols of our society. When two people, under law, agree that they will look after each other and that they will be committed to each other and they ask their friends, their family and their nation to back them and help them in doing that, that is the strongest commitment to another person that they can make.

Sarah Hanson-Young

This is a big day for love. Despite the years of bigotry and hate, despite the years of violence and lies, despite the ignorance and the fear, love has won. Today we are on the brink of an extraordinary moment in Australian history. In the tale of our nation this will be remembered as the day love won. The resounding 'yes' vote for marriage equality was a moment of which we can all be proud. Australians opened up our arms and embraced our sisters, our brothers and our families. In the face of bigotry and hatred, we reflected back love. To the young boy in the country town who is working out who he is attracted to, or to the young girl who wants to take her girlfriend to the high-school formal, this is for you. This is a message from the nation's highest body that you are equal, you are loved and you are respected.

Adam Bandt

The other thing that we are here to do today is give one of the most powerful gifts that any person or group of people can give, and that is the gift of hope—the gift of hope that gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people can soon look forward to a wedding day, whether their own wedding day or that of their brother, their sister, their son, their daughter, their mother, their father or their friends. I absolutely hope that they will soon be able to come together with full access to one of the most fundamental civil institutions in our society, the institution of marriage, to celebrate their love for each other with their friends and families in a way that currently only couples of opposite sex can do in Australia. What a time that will be.

NIck McKim

I pay tribute to all the campaigners everywhere, and not just in this country but also overseas, who have been leading on this issue and who have suffered through the ardour of discrimination, threats, violence and a whole lot more. I want to pay tribute to them first and foremost. I pay tribute to Rodney Croome, from my home state of Tasmania, who, along with former senator Christine Milne and my colleague Senator Nick McKim very proudly championed reform in Tasmania. They worked across all political parties to do it. In old, conservative, stuffy Tasmania they got a great outcome by working together, and it's a really good model for what we should be doing here in this place.

Peter Whish-Wilson

I think any statement in this chamber would be remiss if it omitted to thank the thousands of campaigners across the country who worked so hard to make it possible—those who doorknocked, those who phone banked, those who worked on social media and those who had conversations with their mums and dads and friends. Sometimes those conversations were deeply uncomfortable, but they stepped up. They understood what was at stake and they worked to ensure that we had a resounding yes—and I cannot offer them a more profound congratulations than the one I do today.

I would also like to add to that I think it is important that, when this debate is over and this reform is law, we recognise that it is not the end of the road, that the struggle for equality does not always go forward. And so it is, and remains, important that we who have fought for this reform, and that we who have achieved this reform, now safeguard this reform and ensure that our LGBTIQ community members are protected in all aspects of their lives.

Jordon Steele-John

That 2004 legislation which amended the Marriage Act to insert discrimination and signalled that it was the views of the leadership of the two major parties that the relationships of people who were not of the opposite sex had less value than others. Since then there have been 23 different pieces of legislation that have attempted to reverse that discriminatory decision. I pay tribute to all of those people, from all parties, who sought to reverse that discrimination and who continued to push the issue.

Andrew Barlett

I look forward to seeing the smiles of joy and the tears that I know will flow very freely when the bill finally passes. Then I look forward to going to lots and lots of weddings and sharing the joy of my loved ones and my friends in their ability to say 'I do', slip rings on each other's fingers, kiss, hug and share their love with their families and friends, because that's what this is about. It is about love and people's commitment to each other. Every human being has the right to do that with the person they love and to enjoy and celebrate that with their family, their loved ones and their friends.

Rachel Siewert