Lyle Shelton, the Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby and the leading spokesman for the ‘No’ campaign, has congratulated the Equality campaign for their decisive win in the marriage debate.

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The long term opponent of marriage equality says the next step is for parliament to introduce legislation that provides adequate protections for those opposed to change.

The ACL chief said that many within the ‘No’ campaign would be disappointed by today’s result but they respected the decision of the Australian people.

Shelton voiced his support for the controversial marriage bill put forward by Liberal senator James Paterson saying it only had their bare minimum of the required protections.

“I think the James Paterson bill is a very good bill, I think it does cover the protections that are necessary at a bare minimum,” he said. “I think anything less than that will see basic freedoms eroded.”

Shelton said the Yes campaigner won the debate because they had been relentless in their approach.

“This has been a long campaign by them and that’s appropriate. This is a democracy. They have been relentless in this and they have seen the fruit of their relentlessness and their involvement in the political process and that’s been rewarded today by this result.”

While Shelton is pushing for parliament to consider the conservative bill put forward by Senator Paterson, the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has dismissed the bill as something that would not be supported.

The Prime Minister said the conservative bill was something that has virtually no chance of being passed by parliament.

OIP Staff