The 12 senators who voted against Liberal Dean Smith's same-sex marriage bill
When the same-sex marriage bill passed through the Senate on Wednesday afternoon there were 12 senators who voted against a change to the Marriage Act.
Liberal Senator Dean Smith’s bill passed passed the Upper House with 43 yes votes in favour and just 12 saying no.
Among those who voted down the bill were Liberals Eric Abetz, Slade Brockman, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells and their coalition colleagues Matt Canavan, Barry O'Sullivan and John Williams from the Nationals.
Labor's Chris Ketter and Helen Polley also voted against the bill along with One Nation's Brian Burston, Family First's Lucy Gichuhi, former Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi and former One Nation Senator Fraser Anning.
All proposed amendments, excluding technical tweaks, were voted down with moderate coalition MPs voting with Labor and the Greens to defeat their conservative colleagues' proposed changes.
Senator Canavan said he was “sceptical we could trust the political process to get all of these (religious) protections right”.
“Unfortunately I fear I have been proven true," he said.
In September, Canavan joined Bernardi and Concetta Fierravanti-Wells for the anti same-sex marriage group’s national launch in Sydney.
Senator Bernardi spearheaded the campaign warning the audience of "weaponised" anti-discrimination laws and "legal warfare" against supporters of traditional marriage if the Marriage Act is changed to include same-sex couples.
Free speech was under attack from those seeking to redefine marriage, and their mission would have predictable consequences, he added.
"We're under assault because we're on the right side of legal and moral history," he said.
The South Australian conservative had previously linked gay marriage to bestiality and told the ABC in 2015 that if any frontbenchers wanted to vote in favour of same-sex marriage they should resign from their positions.
Senator Canavan told Sky News last week he was concerned with religious freedoms, and despite calls from senior conservatives to air the concerns separately through a committee process in the new year, he wanted the matters dealt with in “one job lot”.
In June 2015, NSW Liberal Fiervanti-Wells said Australians would reject moves to introduce same-sex marriage, telling the ABC she rejected that change to the law was inevitable.
"There's only two things that are inevitable in life and that's death and taxes,” she said.
While NSW had the lowest rate of yes votes of all states and territories, 57.8 per cent still voted in favour of the change.
Senator Abetz said he hopes the Lower House, which will debate the bill next week, will look at seeking to “alleviate the very real concern of nearly five million” who voted no on the postal survey.
The Tasmanian senator said in August he would guide his decision by the survey’s outcome. Tasmania voted 63.6 per cent in favour of same-sex marriage – returning the second-highest in favour across Australia.
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Attorney-General George Brandis, Liberal senators Mathias Cormann, Ian McDonald and Dean Smith voted yes in the Senate.
Labor senators Penny Wong, Doug Cameron and Sue Lines, and Greens senators Richard Di Natale, Sarah Hanson-Young and Peter Whish-Wilson were also among those voting in favour.
Senators Bridget McKenzie, James McGrath and Pauline Hanson were in the chamber but did not cast a vote.
