Twelve months on, inside the same-sex marriage when Yes campaigners thought Australia would vote No

But on a warm day a year ago 30,000 people had gathered in Prince Alfred Park, close to Sydney’s Central station, all eyes glued to a single screen.

And when the numbers came in — 12.6 million votes overall, 7.8 million for Yes — you could almost hear thousands of cogs in thousands of brains turn, trying to solve the equation.

“Shane Lloyd, the partner of (Qantas chief executive) Alan Joyce was the first person to work it out,” said Alex Greenwich, state member for Sydney. “He turned to Alan and said, ‘We’ve won’.”

A second later, a mighty roar signalled the crowd had worked it out too.

Twelve months ago, on November 15, 62 per cent of Australians said Yes to same-sex marriage. Just three weeks later, the law changed.

To coincide with the anniversary, Mr Greenwich and Shirleene Robinson, both heavily involved in the campaign, have published Yes Yes Yes, an insider’s guide to the long battle for marriage equality.

The moment the Yes vote was announced in Sydney’s Prince Alfred Park on 15 November 2017. Picture: Toby ZernaSource:News Corp Australia

Shane Lloyd (left) the partner of Qantas CEO Alan Joyce (right) was one of the first to do the mental arithmetic and work out the Yes side had won. Picture: AAP Image/David Moir.Source:AAP

Talking to news.com.au, Mr Greenwich revealed the unconventional meeting in a deserted aircraft hangar where then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull tried to persuade Yes campaigners to back a plebiscite.

And the moment that he was at the lowest ebb and broke down in sobs, fearful No would prevail.

Mr Greenwich also said prominent No campaigner Tony Abbott should now “apologise” for his “cowardly and harmful” rhetoric.

“A year on, it’s a complex set of emotions,” Mr Greenwich said. “There’s great relief there’ve been all these wonderful weddings but also frustration that it took so long and the process was so tough and gruelling.”

Picture: For Yes campaigners there were several low points including when there was a backlash over mass texts sent out. Picture: Mark Kolbe/Getty ImagesSource:Getty Images

Actor and comedian Magda Szubanski addresses the crowd at a street party following the announcement of the same-sex marriage vote result in Sydney. Picture: AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts.Source:AAP

AIRPORT HANGAR MEETING

Mr Greenwich, who married his husband Victor in Argentina in 2012, was co-chair of campaign group Australian Marriage Equality.

He remembers the excitement in 2015 when it looked like a free vote on same-sex marriage could occur under the Abbott government. And then the dismay as the then PM announced Australians would instead go to the polls to decide the issue.

Hopes his successor, Mr Turnbull, would ditch that decision were soon dashed.

In September 2016, Mr Greenwich and a clutch of other gay marriage advocates were called to a meeting with the Prime Minister in an unconventional location far from the hubbub of the Canberra bubble — an aircraft hangar metres from the Sydney airport runways, where Mr Turnbull had landed moments before.

“We met in this private jet hangar where he and Attorney-General George Brandis asked us to come out in support of a compulsory plebiscite. He wanted the issue resolved; it was a big issue and a big distraction for him.

“But we held firm, we said we opposed the plebiscite because of its impact on rainbow families and that the reality was he didn’t have the numbers to pass the legislation,” said Mr Greenwich.

Malcolm Turnbull campaigned for same-sex marriage but critics have said the vote should never have gone ahead. Picture: AAP Image/Paul Miller.Source:AAP

If they’d caved, he said, the originally planned poll may have gone ahead. The delay also gave both sides more time to build their support bases and plan their campaigns.

Sure enough, the Government’s plebiscite legislation failed to pass. But they had a plan B — an $80 million postal survey administered by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which didn’t need parliamentary approval.

Mr Greenwich said it was an “aggressive” attempt to “clearly stymie progress on marriage equality”. But while they opposed the vote, many on what would become the Yes side still engaged with the Government on how the postal survey should be conducted.

Some in the LGBTI community were furious at what they saw as the duplicity at the heart of the largest Yes campaign group.

Sydney MP Alex Greenwich and Shirleene Robinson, authors of the Yes Yes Yes book on same-sex marriage.Source:Supplied

KEYBOARD COWARDS

Mr Greenwich defended the move and insisted they had to prepare for the “worst case scenario”, of a vote which indeed came to pass.

“It’s better to be at the table than on the menu. If we’d just been outside throwing daggers we could have had a terrible question and legislation.”

He was particularly fearful, he said, of a vote “with terms negotiated by Pauline Hanson”.

Mr Greenwich hit out at “keyboard cowards” on the pro side who attacked staff and volunteers and did “untold damage to those people”.

“As is often the case, it’s friendly fire that hurts the most,” he said.

In September 2017, the High Court struck down final legal challenges to the postal survey. For Mr Greenwich, it was his lowest ebb.

“I flew back to Sydney and a Qantas flight attendant gave me three bottles of wine and an handful of Lindt balls and said, ‘You’re going to need this,’ as I choked up.”

Then there was the infamous headbutt of Tony Abbot from a man wearing a Yes badge.

“I remember getting calls from journalists saying, ‘This isn’t going well, you’re being portrayed as bullies, you could lose this’.

“Then there was the day I got my own (ballot paper) in the mail and I thought, ‘There’s 10 years of f***ing advocacy in that envelope’ and it felt like a failure that LGBTI people were having their rights voted on.”

Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott in Hobart after the infamous headbutt. Picture: Jim Rice/AAPSource:AAP

A Launceston pizza Shop made a subtle change to an anti same-sex marriage ads. Picture: ABC News.Source:ABC

ABBOTT SHOULD APOLOGISE

So what does a seasoned campaigner do when the chips are down? They pick up some flyers and head down to Sydney’s busy Martin Place.

“There was nothing more rewarding than hearing people say they voted Yes; that strong positive reaction was quite different to the commentary at the time.”

He bristles at the role Mr Abbott and then Australian Christian Lobby head Lyle Shelton played in the No campaign, their warnings of “unintended consequences” and calls to push back against “political correctness”.

“I haven’t spoken to Tony Abbott or Lyle Shelton since then and if I were too, I would ask them to apologise for the appalling harm their campaign caused,” Mr Greenwich said.

“It was a cowardly campaign that spent millions of dollars to attack and demonise the most vulnerable in our community.”

While he has hardly had a road to Damascus conversion, Mr Abbott did end up the guest of honour at one of Australia’s first gay weddings — that of his sister Christine Forster and her long-term partner Virginia Edwards.

But Mr Shelton, now a prospective Australian Conservatives senator, insists those “consequences” are coming to pass.

Emotions ran high after the result was announced. Picture: AAP Image/David Moir.Source:AAP

Senator Penny Wong burst into tears in Canberra. Picture: AAP Image/Dean Lewins.Source:AAP

TURNBULL SLAMMED

Mr Greenwich said Labor had to share some of the blame for marriage equality taking as long as it did. And he applauds the role senior Liberals such as Dean Smith, Warren Entsch and Tim Wilson played in the campaign.

But he has little time for the then PM. Who needs marriage equality foes, seems to ponder Mr Greenwich, when you had advocates like Mr Turnbull?

“What Australia was looking for was political leadership and they didn’t get that from Turnbull. I remember this terrible speech he gave where he talked about how (marriage would mean) gay people would no longer grow old and live alone with their cats.

“The PM could have shown some compassion for how difficult this process was but he was completely tone deaf. I think the people of Wentworth felt let down.

“He took credit for marriage equality but that credit belonged to 15,000 volunteers, not him.”

Last week, the City of Sydney announced that the corner of Prince Alfred Park, which erupted to such cheers last year, will be renamed Equality Green.

“It was a terrible process but in the end Australia did us proud,” said Mr Greenwich.

Mr Turnbull’s office told news.com.au that the reference to cats in a speech was stressing the benefits of co-dependency that gay marriage would bring for couples.

Yes Yes Yes: Australia’s Journey to Marriage Equality by Alex Greenwich and Shirleene Robinson, published by NewSouth books, is now available.

benedict.brook@news.com.au