Also disappointing were the excuses councillors used to excuse their lack of support, the most common being the weasel words of it not being the council’s business.

I do though note that Councillor Poynter supported both motions, and on behalf of all in favour of equality for all, regardless of sexuality or gender identity, I thank him for having the guts to do so.

At the same time as Wagga City Council was failing to support many of its citizens I noticed that the ALP was still fighting over whether or not to bind its federal MPs to vote in favour of marriage equality, or leave them to vote according to their conscience.

“Conscience vote” of course is another example of weasel words, because though it sounds good in actual fact it means that the personal prejudices of individuals largely unknown to the electorate are allowed to override the principles that their party supposedly stands for.

So it was pleasing to see that Opposition health spokeswoman Catherine King say that the ALP national conference should vote on getting rid of the conscience vote on same-sex marriage.

Thankfully, removing discrimination in the Marriage Act has always been a matter of principle to the Greens, and so is not up to the whims of individual MPs

And so last week the Australian Greens urged Labor and Liberal to stop the infighting and get on with legislating for marriage equality.

“It's time to drop the excuses … the party either believes equality is important or it doesn't,” Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

“The Greens have always believed that removing discrimination from the law books is a matter of principle and it should be the policy of all parties who honestly believe in equality.