Stephen Dawson, Labor’s MLC for the Mining and Pastoral region is set to marry his long time partner Dennis Liddelow in Canberra this weekend.

Dawson and Liddelow will be among the first same sex couples to marry in Australia under the territory’s ground breaking law.

Liddelow and Dawson were previously had a civil union in Ireland.

“But a civil union is not marriage and a civil union in Ireland is not a marriage in Australia,” Dawson told The Canberra Times.

The couple will join other same sex couples for a joint wedding at parliament house at 12:01am. One minute after the laws become official.

How long the couples union will be recognised for is an unknown factor with the High Court set to deliver it’s verdict on whether the laws are constitutionally valid on Thursday.