AUSTRALIAN BAN ON SAME-SEX MARRIAGE AND OVERSEAS ADOPTION CLEARS LOWER HOUSE: From The Age

The federal government's controversial plans to ban gay couples from marrying and adopting children from overseas were passed by parliament's lower house.

After a heated debate, the government used its numbers to defeat a series of amendments proposed by Labor and get the legislation passed.

The legislation will now be debated in the Senate.

Labor had strongly opposed the ban on gay couples adopting children from overseas in the Marriage Legislation Amendment Bill 2004.

But it did back the bill's measures to changes the Marriage Act to confirm that marriage represents a union between a man and woman.

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said the bill would help protect the institution of marriage and Labor was wrong not to support the ban on gay couples adopting children from overseas.

"This is not a question of suitability of people to adopt," he told parliament.

"This is a question of judging amongst those who are suitable when you have a limited pool who ought to be given priority."

Mr Ruddock also insisted that the bill was not designed to discriminate against gay couples.

"This is merely affirming what people understand to be the law," he said.

"We are of the view that people can have their relationships, it's just that they can't have their relationships ascribed the characteristic of marriage when marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman."

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