QANTAS CEO Alan Joyce has urged the Australian Parliament to pass the same-sex marriage legislation unamended, saying he and others who voted ‘’yes’’ did so with the existing legislation in mind.
And Mr Joyce said he was still waiting for a marriage proposal from his long-term partner Shane Lloyd, who worked on the same-sex marriage campaign.
“My partner hasn’t built up the courage to ask me yet so I’m still waiting for that, so hopefully,’’ he said, speaking at the launch of the new Qantas lounge in London.
Mr Joyce, who campaigned for a yes vote during the postal survey, said he believed the current legislation contained appropriate levels of religious freedoms.
“Everybody- and certainly when I voted yes — I was voting yes for Dean Smith’s bill in mind, that has appropriate levels of religious protections for the churches,’’ he said.
“That is the bill we voted yes for, and it was very clear.
“Our expectation is that that will go through the Parliament and the Prime Minister has committed that will happen before Christmas, and I think it’s up to the Prime Minister and the Government to deliver on that commitment.
“We hope that Parliament gets to deliver it by Christmas.’’
Mr Joyce’s comments came after the Australian Senate yesterday voted down five proposed amendments put forward by conservative senators, who were seeking to amend the private members bill put forward by same-sex marriage proponent Liberal Senator Dean Smith.
He said the result of the same-sex marriage postal survey, which saw 61 per cent of respondents vote yes, was “amazing.’’
“We were on the stage in Sydney in the park, there was a couple of thousand people there. Magda Szubanski and my partner Shane, who worked on the campaign, a lot of people who worked on the campaign.
“I have never been so nervous about anything, believe you me.
“I had a knot in my stomach. And the relief. I was nearly going to kill the chief statistician, he took ages to come to the result, I was ready to kill him.
“And then we got there and it was a big relief and there were tears,” Joyce said. “I hugged Magda, everyone was hugging everyone. It was just an amazingly emotional occasion.
“And I was very proud of Australia, very proud of the country I live in. I was very proud of Ireland and I was even prouder of Australia with this vote.’’
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