On Wednesday, February 9, around 6pm, five wary Liberal Party MPs – each intimately and sadly familiar with homophobic prejudice – gathered in the Parliament House office of psychologist-turned-politician Fiona Martin for a moment of collective solace.

Twelve exhausting hours later, three of them would be shattered, emotionally and physically, after taking one of the most consequential decision of their lives. They would inflict upon the Morrison government the greatest parliamentary defeat in its 1265 days of existence, a loss they were warned, repeatedly, could decide the federal election.