Politics Live: March 17, 2016

Government MP George Christensen is talking about his opposition to the Safe Schools program.

"The thing's been flawed from the get go because of the ideology that's gone into it," Mr Christensen says.

"If you want an anti bullying porgram, have an anti bulling program. Don't bring queer gender theory into schools...I don't want to see young people sexualised at all."

My sincere apologies for the break in transmission.

Self interest intervened in the form of this.

Government senator Ian Macdonald has been using his time in the marriage equality debate to talk about voting reform.

He also thinks that since there is going to be a plebiscite on marriage equality there should also be one on voluntary euthanasia. Oh and abortion.

The government is very much about upper house voting reform this week (well, that's the plan).

So it was very happy when the opposition's former spokesman on such matters, Gary Gray, stood up in the House of Representatives a short time back to talk about why he disagrees with the position his party took on the matter.

"My party continues to simply make me sad.....There are no perfect reforms in this area. We can't make it perfect, but we can make it much better than what it currently is because currently and over the past few years as we've seen at state and federal level pop-up parties designed to attract small numbers of primary voters have been manipulated through our system of Senate voting."

"None of us can predict the outcome of future elections, but all of us should be concerned about future elections being manipulated by pop up parties being created and by outcomes being confected by those whose interests are not the national interest, are not the interest of the people and are not the interest of our community.....I strongly support reform of Senate voting practices. I am made sad by my party's position. I will vote for my party's position, but I will do it knowing full well that the reforms that are before the house and before the Senate as we speak are reforms that genuinely improve the operation of our Electoral Act, genuinely improve Senate voting and are in the interests."

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull pops back into the chamber to pay his respects to Mr Macfarlane.

He praises him for being "a thinker and a dreamer as big as the land from which he sprang".

I'll just leave that briefly because former government minister Ian Macfarlane is squeezing his valedictory speech into an already packed day.

"The combination of shallow journalism and shallow government is ruining our governance."

"We now find ourselves being referred to in the general populace as clowns and this place as a circus."

Mr Macfarlane goes on to criticise "the fierceness of personal politics and the lack of respect for other's views".

Labor senator Penny Wong is none too impressed with this move: "The Greens have sided with Cory Bernardi and Eric Abetz twice in three days to stop their own marriage equality bill from being fully debated and voted on by the Senate. The Greens care more about eliminating other minor parties from the Senate than they do about eliminating discrimination against gay and lesbian Australians."

And the debate on marriage equality has begun.

As Greens senator Janet Rice points out: "This is going to continue until we vote."

"Let's bring on the vote. If we ring the bells we could be hearing wedding bells chime."

My apologies. I reshuffled Mr Pyne back to his old portfolio. I have corrected the 10.05 am post. Thanks to people who picked it up.

Golly.

"I think it's weird that some people in the Liberal Party are so obsessed with other people's sexuality," Mr Shorten says.

The last thing students grappling with their sexuality need is "knuckle dragging right wing senators" making their lives more difficult.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten is only too happy to chat.

"It is now beyond a joke that Mr Turnbull is fanning the fires of the lunar right of his party," Mr Shorten says of the Safe Schools program.

"At the end of the day this is a voluntary program schools can opt into....[Mr Turnbull's] mistake was in not slapping this down earlier.....Kids who are grappling with their sexuality in their teenage years should be supported."

Underground carparks and entrances and always handy at times such as these.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been speaking at a family violence conference in Canberra.

Naturally there was some interest in Mr Turnbull's views on various matters around today. Naturally Mr Turnbull's office thought of that.

Industry Minister Christopher Pyne has shared his thoughts on the Safe Schools program.

The program should not be scrapped and it should not be subject to a parliamentary review, Mr Pyne says.

He says when he was education minister he "took the view I shouldn't bring my 48 year old attitude to these materials because I have children of my own and if they were being bullied I would want them to have the support they need".

Mr Pyne's comments come as it was revealed former prime minister Tony Abbott had signed Queensland MP George Christensen's petition calling on Mr Turnbull to scrap the program.

A long day somehow seems already longer:

And it is lost.

The marriage equality debate will come back on a bit later today but only an hour has been allocated for debate so it is not going to come to a vote.

Now the twittersphere has descended into a war between Green and Labor MPs as to which side has the moral high ground on this one. 

Dare one suggest neither?

The motion is now being voted on.

Before anything really gets going Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm has moved to suspect standing orders to debate marriage equality legislation.

The Greens say it is a "cheap stunt" and will not support it.

But Labor will saying the Greens are hypocrites for voting down their own bill.

Politics, eh?

Despite some indications last night that photographers would be able to capture proceedings this is no longer the case.

So apologies for the lack of photographs but you can blame that on the vanity of certain senators.