Editing Stephen Conroy (section)

==Political positions==
Conroy is a Roman Catholic and socially conservative. While he voted against the abortion drug [[RU486]] in a conscience vote,<ref name=baby>{{cite web|url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/the-senator-the-surrogate-and-the-new-baby/2006/11/06/1162661617858.html|title=The senator, the surrogate and the new baby - National - theage.com.au|date=7 November 2006}}</ref> he has claimed not to have taken a conservative position on all issues:

<blockquote>"I think the point I made was that while I would prefer there to be a parliamentary framework for the RU486, I think it was, debate, if the actual issue was before Parliament I would probably vote for the distribution of the pill. People often say, oh no Steve's a conservative Catholic, but they won't ever find on my voting record something that backs that up. I voted against the Northern Territory's euthanasia legislation. I voted for some of the cloning debate. So I voted in, I like to consider the issues on their merits and I voted what some would characterise as conservatively and some would characterise as progressively on a number of issues."<ref name=abc>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2008/s2472653.htm|title=AM - Sounds of Summer: Stephen Conroy on his complicated surrogacy arrangement|website=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]] |date=27 June 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/ru486-a-path-to-euthanasia/2006/02/09/1139379617316.html|title=Senate rejects RU486 veto - National|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=9 February 2006}}</ref></blockquote>

When a bill seeking to legalise [[Same-sex marriage in Australia|same-sex marriage]] was debated by the Senate in 2012, Conroy was one of 11 Labor Senators to vote against the legislation.<ref>{{Cite Hansard|jurisdiction=Commonwealth of Australia |title= Marriage Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2012 |hansard= Journals Of The Senate No. 114—20 September 2012|page=3055 |url=http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/chamber/journals/20120920_SJ114/toc_pdf/jnlp_114.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf |house=[[Australian Senate|Senate]] |date= 20 September 2012}}</ref> By the time of Conroy's resignation, Labor Party policy supported same-sex marriage and bound its MPs to vote in favour of legislation from the end of the 2016–19 parliamentary term.<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite web|url=http://www.afr.com/news/politics/bill-shorten-forced-to-compromise-on-gay-marriage-20150726-giklt1|title=Bill Shorten forced to compromise on gay marriage|date=26 July 2015|publisher=Australian Financial Review|author=Phillip Coorey}}</ref>