Prime Minister Paul Keating announced homosexual men and women would no longer be banned from serving in the Australian Defence Force in November 1992 but only after an internal battle in cabinet.
The Minister for Defence Senator Robert Ray strenuously opposed lifting the ban.
![Internal disputes: Minister for Defence Robert Ray with Paul Keating in the early 1990s.](/web/20170101155850im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/f/5/j/y/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtd1y1.png/1483175917646.jpg)
He tabled a report on November 23, 1992 seeking to defer further consideration of homosexual policy in the ADF until a comprehensive survey of attitudes and opinions held by ADF commanders and members was completed.
"The proposal will be supported by ADF members and ex-service organisations," Senator Ray said.
"The proposal is likely to be criticised by civil liberties groups and the homosexual community."
Six years earlier, during the Bob Hawke government, the ADF had adopted a policy that not only banned homosexual behaviour but provided for the dismissal of members who admitted to homosexual conduct.
Attorney-General Michael Duffy told cabinet the ban was inconsistent with the Labor government's social justice policies on general equity and equality of opportunity.
Mr Duffy won the argument and the following day Mr Keating scrapped the ban.
![Homosexual men and women were no longer banned from serving in the ADF in November 1992.](/web/20170101155850im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/f/5/u/9/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtd1y1.png/1483175917646.jpg)
The tenor of service opposition was illustrated in an ADF working group on homosexual policy report submitted to cabinet that dismissed arguments around the tenet that what was good enough for "great soldiers" was good enough for ordinary ranks.
"The committee believes that the alleged homosexuality of Alexander the Great, Lawrence of Arabia, Richard the Lion Hearted, Lord Kitchener and the bisexuality of Julius Caesar et al is a matter of concern for historians and not a guide for policy makers in the latter part of the twentieth century," the report said.