Attorney-General George Brandis has hailed progress on legalising same-sex marriage as a shining moment in Australian history.
Initial debate on Liberal senator Dean Smith's private bill entered the committee stage - when amendments are considered - on Tuesday, making it the first time either house of federal parliament has ever cast a vote in favour of same-sex marriage.
"At last, Australia will no longer be insulting gay people by saying different rules apply to you," Senator Brandis told his upper house colleagues.
"After centuries of prejudice, discrimination, rejection and ridicule, it is both an expiation for past wrongs and a final act of acceptance and embrace."
Senator Brandis said legalising same-sex marriage would bring more acceptance for young people.
"I want to reflect for a moment on the message this will send, in particular, to young gay people - to the boy or girl who senses a difference from their friends, which they find difficult to understand and impossible to deal with," he said.
"In his first speech in the Parliament, my friend, Tim Wilson, spoke movingly of his own experience of confronting that knowledge, as a tormenting fear that took an energetic 12-year-old and hollowed his confidence to eventually doubt his legitimate place in the world".
"How many hundreds of thousands of young Australians have known that fear? How many have lived with it, silently and alone? How many have failed to come to terms with it and been overborne by it?
George Brandis has delivered a powerful speech on same-sex marriage. Source: AAP
"By passing this bill, we are saying to those vulnerable young people - There is nothing wrong with you. You are not unusual. You are not abnormal. You are just you. There is nothing to be embarrassed about. There is nothing to be ashamed of. There is nothing to hide. You are a normal person and, like every other normal person, you have a need to love. How you love is how God made you. Whom you love is for you to decide and others to respect."
Senator Brandis also said he felt those who were opposed to the law change had "accepted the result with generosity and grace".
- with AAP
