Reflecting on the campaign to legalise same-sex marriage, Greens senator Janet Rice strongly hinted a proposal during her valedictory speech.
The outgoing and openly bisexual senator lauded the campaign for marriage equality as one of her crowning achievements during her tenure in the Senate.
"For me now, marriage equality means that my partner Anne and I, who have been together for the past two years, can get married," she told the chamber on Tuesday.
"And newsflash, we probably will," she said to a round of applause in the chamber as her partner looked on from the public gallery.
"Love you, Anne."
Senator Rice thanked her former wife and transgender woman Penny Whetton, who died in 2019, for her work in the marriage equality campaign as well.
"Marriage equality meant I could stay married to my late wife Penny and she could change her birth certificate to say female without us having to get divorced," she said.
"Penny was such a star during the campaign for marriage equality, as a trans woman she put herself out of her comfort zone to speak up, to say love was love and that all we wanted was to stay married."
The Victorian senator will continue to fight for LGBTQI rights outside of the chamber as the government prepares new religious discrimination protections.
Part of the proposed laws includes protections for LGBTQI students and staff from discrimination by religious schools.
"I will continue fighting outside parliament against any bill that acts only as a Trojan horse for hate," she said, referring to the government's religious anti-discrimination legislation.
The retiring senator lambasted the social security system as full-time workers struggle with the cost of living and people on welfare fail to make ends meet.
Politics was failing those who needed the most support, she said
"In a wealthy country like ours, no one should be living in poverty," she said.
She called for stronger action on climate change and an end to new coal and gas projects.
Australia also hadn't come far enough on Indigenous justice and towards truth telling and treaties, Senator Rice said.
She will be replaced by former Greenpeace Australia Pacific head and environmental lawyer Steph Hodgins-May when she bows out of politics this year.
Australian Associated Press
