It's amazing that the strident right of the Liberal Party has been so implacably opposed to renewable energy when its primary, inexhaustible fuel is recycled talking points.

Think of all the needless pain inflicted by watching fringe religious movements slowly and publicly lose the marriage equality debate -- and then cast your mind back further.

Queer activist Paul Kidd puts it pretty tersely: "Debates about decriminalising gay sex. About anti-discrimination laws. About criminalising people with HIV. About gay and lesbian teachers, about public health, public funding for IVF, blood donors, the definition of marriage, ‘boys in skirts’, sex ed, accepting trans kids at school. It goes on and on."