Same Sex Marriage: Opposition Leader Bill Shorten Introduces Bill Federal Parliament; Coalition Members Benches Almost Empty?

William Richard "Bill" Shorten, Leader of the Opposition, has initiated a bill to the house of Representative to legalize same sex marriage.

In his speech, he stresses out the need to change the definition of marriage from simply "the union of a man and a woman" to a marriage of equality where people of the same sex can enter the union.

However, the House of Representative voted to put off the debate since the Coalition does not support the marriage equality legislation. The next Parliament meeting is scheduled in spring, which the bill maybe read the second time.

Bill Shorten calls on Prime Minister Tony Abbott to grant the Members of the Parliament to make their choice freely concerning the bill he has introduced.

PM Abbot has expressed his priority when interviewed on Monday on his visits to Harvey Norman shop to promote the budget. He points out that though he understood that same-sex marriage is an important issue, his main priority at the moment is to get the budget measures through the Parliament.

But then, most of the Coalition members are not obligated to attend the session, only those who are required MPs.

Mrs. Chloe Shorten, wife of Bill, has attended the session and is watching from the public gallery as her husband delivers his speech.

Among the senators attending in the chambers are ACT chief minister Andrew Barr, Sen. Penny Wong, and Sen. Kay Gallagher.

Mr. Shorten delivers his speech with the Coalition's side with almost empty chairs, but this does not disheartens the Labor leader. He gives strong points as reasons to approve the Marriage Equality Bill.

In his short speech, Bill Shorten says that the Law should reflect what everyone wants to see in the mirror, "Generous, smart, modern, diverse and above all, equal." 

The full speech of William Richard Shorten is available in his website.

William Richard Shorten ends his speech with hopes to make 2015 the year when Australia adopts Marriage Equality.