The July 2015 ALP National Conference was one of the most important opportunities to progress LGBTI rights in Australia this decade.

In the lead-up to this Conference, I joined with others within and outside the party to push for the existing platform position supporting marriage equality to be made binding on its MPs, obliging them to vote in favour the next time it comes before Parliament.

This page includes my posts in the lead-up to ALP National Conference 2015, explaining why I genuinely believed #ItsTimeToBind for the ALP on marriage equality, as part of a much broader LGBTI agenda:

• Hey Australia Labor, It’s time to bind on marriage equality (from July 2014)

• 15 LGBTI priorities for ALP National Conference 2015 (September 2014)

• Letter to Bill Shorten re LGBTI under-representation in Parliament (October 2014)

• Bill Shorten, Will you lead on marriage equality? (January 2015)

• Letter to ALP MPs and Senators calling for a binding vote on marriage equality (April 2015)

• Thank you Tanya Plibersek and Penny Wong for supporting a binding vote on marriage equality 

• The MP and the Senator threatening to cross the floor rather than vote for marriage equality

• 4 arguments against an ALP binding vote on marriage equality and why they’re wrong

• An ALP binding vote for marriage equality should not include a right to abstain

• 4 more arguments against an ALP binding vote on marriage equality, and why they’re wrong too 

• Letter to state and territory Labor leaders calling for them to support a binding vote for marriage equality

• One of these things is not treated like the others

• It’s time to bind to stop us falling further and further behind 

• Tanya Plibersek’s principled stand threatens to achieve progress on marriage equality

• It’s time to bind: The quick guide

• 2 additional arguments against an ALP binding vote on marriage equality, and why they’re wrong as well (May 2015)

• It’s time to bind: Counting the numbers

• What a binding vote for marriage equality is, and what it is not

• An LGBTI agenda: Submission on draft ALP national platform 2015

• What Tony Burke gets right, and what Anthony Albanese gets wrong, about marriage equality

• Bill Shorten’s Marriage Equality Bill Second Reading Speech: The annotated version (June 2015)

• Why the Australian Labor Party should still adopt a binding vote on marriage equality (July 2015)

• What ALP national conference delegates should hear about marriage equality  and

• Responding to Bill Shorten’s arguments against a binding vote on marriage equality

Of course, in terms of a binding vote on marriage equality, this campaign was only partially successful – ALP National Conference delegates did decide to adopt a binding vote, but only after the 2019 Federal election (which is both patently ridiculous, and will possibly come after marriage equality is achieved in Australia anyway).

Nevertheless, there were successes across a wide range of other LGBTI policy areas. I have written about those wins, alongside the loss on binding before the 2019 poll (and the even worse loss on refugee policy) in my long-overdue summary of the Conference: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly of ALP National Conference 2015.