Politics Live: August 11, 2015

What happened today?

• the Coalition party room is debating marriage equality after Prime Minister Tony Abbott called a surprise meeting on the issue;
• at the moment it seems like there will be no change in the Coalition's position which would mean no marriage equality in Australia in the short term;
• Mr Abbott also announced the government had decided to commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 26 per cent by 2030;
• the opposition, Greens, environment groups and scientists have criticised the amount as insufficient to deal with the problem; but
• the government argues its target is the economically responsible way to handle global warming.

My thanks, as always, to Alex Ellinghausen and Andrew Meares for their magic and to you for reading and participating.

Alex, Andrew and I will be back in the morning but we can always chat on Facebook if you miss us before then.

Thanks for your company and good night.

I'm going to wrap things up.

It seems like the meeting is going to do on for some time and in the absence of any actual news as to what is happening inside the room I will leave it to my colleagues to report back.

It is unclear how the meeting will end.

It could end with an actual vote on whether or not to allow a conscience vote or it could end with Mr Abbott summarising the mood of the room.

Isn't this a nice moment? Labor Senator Nova Peris congratulating Joanna Lindgren on her first speech.

Senator Joanna Lindgren was congratulated by Senator Nova Peris after she made her first speech to the Senate on Tuesday.Credit: Andrew Meares

You can read Mr Abbott's announcement on climate change here.

It is dragging on, isn't it?

MPs are coming and going with most offering fairly boring comments about what's going on inside the meeting.

National Party MP Andrew Broad, at least, had a new take on no comment: "Whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas."

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and junior minister Jamie Briggs used the meeting break to zip out and check out a showcase of produce from South Australia.

The Australian Christian Lobby is urging people who do not support marriage equality to pray.

Judith Ireland has an update on how the meeting is being run.

Backbenchers have been speaking with executive contributions still to come.

MPs and Senators have been asked to stick to whether they support a free vote and their support for same-sex marriage more broadly.

With a long speaking list, one MP estimated that the Coalition was about a quarter of the way through before the break. They said that about 75 per cent of speakers so far have been opposed to a free vote.

Mr Abbott is chairing the meeting, with whip Scott Buchholz manning the bell. It is understood most speakers are taking between two and four minutes.

Marriage equality advocates believe the length of the discussion is good for them.

"The drawn out party room debate shows there are passionately held views on both sides and the best way forward is a free vote," the national director of Australian Marriage Equality, Rodney Croome, said.

"The whole point of free votes is to allow impasses like this to be resolved....Coalition members like Kelly O'Dwyer, Sarah Henderson, Ewen Jones and Darren Chester should be allowed to fulfil their commitment to their electorates and vote for marriage equality."