A private members bill to legalize same-sex marriage which has been tabled by Australian Government senators has been labelled ‘farcical’ and a waste of time by the far-right anti-gay Australian Christian Lobby.

Labor Senators Louise Pratt, Gavin Marshall, Carol Brown and Trish Crossin introduced the private members bill yesterday.

A Greens party bill on the issue was already before the Senate so the move by Government senators may be an attempt to claim ownership of the issue if the issue has enough support to pass through the parliament.

A short debate on marriage equality in the Australian Senate has been held but has failed to shed light on the prospects if a vote is held on the issue, with only four senators speaking during the allotted time.

First to speak was the bill’s author, Greens party Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who told the parliament that the bill had been amended to further address the concerns of religious opponents who feared that they would be made to solemnize marriages that weren’t in accordance with their faith.

A second Australian state government has announced it will move to legalize same-sex marriage at a state level on a day that thousands of protestors marched in cities all over the country calling on federal parliamentarians to deliver on reform.

At a rally in the South Australian capital of Adelaide, state Labor Party leader and premier Jay Weatherill declared his government would support a Greens party bill legalizing same-sex marriages at a state level.

‘I support the principle of marriage equality,’ Weatherill told a cheering crowd of protesters.