History of same-sex marriage in Australia

The history of same-sex marriage in Australia dates from its express prohibition by the Howard Government in 2004 to numerous subsequent attempts to legalise it at both federal and state/territory levels, all of which have been unsuccessful as of 2016. Although the Australian Capital Territory did succeed in passing a same-sex marriage law in 2013, this was struck down by the High Court on the basis that federal laws prohibiting same-sex marriage would prevail over any inconsistent state or territory laws that allowed same-sex marriage.

As of 2016, there have been 18 unsuccessful attempts in the Federal Parliament to legalise same-sex marriage nationwide. The current Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, supports same-sex marriage. The Turnbull Government went to the 2016 federal election with a policy to put the issue of same-sex marriage to a plebiscite, and was narrowly re-elected, though the legislation to establish the plebiscite was rejected by the Australian Senate in November 2016.

The following details the legislative history of marriage law and reform attempts in federal parliament.

Previously a matter for the Australian states and territories, uniform national marriage legislation was first introduced by Attorney-General Garfield Barwick of the Liberal Party of Australia 19 May 1960. The Marriage Act 1961 was eventually passed in a conscience vote on 22 March 1961, with an attempt by Victorian Senator George Hannan to insert a definition of marriage as "the voluntary union of one man and one woman for life to the exclusion of all others" rejected in a 40-8 vote. At the 1960 second reading speech Barwick noted that the legislation did not seek to define "marriage" while in 1961 the senator responsible for securing the law's passage in the Senate, John Gorton, suggested that:

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