As far as Labor warriors go in Parliament, they don't come much more Labor warrior-like than Wayne Swan.
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Yet the former deputy prime minister and Bruce Springsteen fanboy did the unthinkable on Monday: he swapped sides.
Shortly before the Coalition's Warren Entsch stood to introduce his same-sex marriage bill, the member for Lilley swanned into the chamber and took his place among the cross-party posse on the Coalition benches.
Swan didn't venture into enemy territory because he was missing the view from the government side; he came over as part of a rare ceasefire.
When introducing his cross-party bill, Entsch's seat was surrounded by a snuggle of MPs from across the Parliament. Along with Swan were fellow Labor MPs Tim Watts, Graham Perrett and Laurie Ferguson, as well as the Greens' Adam Bandt and independents Andrew Wilkie and Cathy McGowan.
The support nucleus stood in contrast to the rest of the government benches, which were near-empty. (If you wanted to be snarky, you could argue there was only room for Swan and Co because the usual owners of their seats were conspicuously absent.)
The Labor MPs on the Coalition side - earning a few funny looks from their colleagues - weren't the only ones taking a stand by sitting down on Monday. Just before Entsch began to introduce the bill, Christopher Pyne came in and took his place on the frontbench.
It was a silent but bold move for the leader of the House, who was a lone Pyne for several minutes, until Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull came in to join his colleague.
Together, they were the only two cabinet ministers in the chamber for Entsch's speech, which calmly noted that there was nothing wrong with being gay.
"Much of the evolution of our social norms comes about through greater understanding," the burly north Queensland croc hunter said.
After his speech, Entsch was applauded by Labor MPs, many of whom then crossed the floor to give him a hug. Outside the chamber, the member for Leichhardt smooched McGowan and Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, and put his arms around Wilkie and Bandt.
Speaking of the cross-party process, his co-sponsor, Liberal MP Teresa Gambaro made a wistful observation that does not need to go to a plebiscite to be endorsed by the nation: "I wish we could do this more often."
