ACT Deputy Chief Minister Andrew Barr voted against a binding position on gay marriage for Labor MPs.
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Mr Barr, who has campaigned for two years to change the party's platform on the issue and who moved the motion on same-sex marriage at Saturday's Labor conference, fell in line with his Right faction and voted for a conscience vote.
The Deputy Chief Minister said yesterday he cast his vote with Prime Minister Julia Gillard's motion for a conscience vote on the issue to maintain the factional unity within his Right grouping that he needed to secure his amendment to the party's platform.
Mr Barr said he had talked about his intentions before the vote with his colleagues in the Rainbow Coalition, a cross-factional Labor group that campaigns for gay and lesbian rights.
ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher stuck to her long-held position on Saturday and that of her Left faction and voted against the Prime Minister's conscience vote motion.
Ms Gillard got her wish on the floor of the conference that her MPs should be allowed to vote with their conscience on any move to amend the Commonwealth marriage Act to allow equality for same-sex couples.
But the Prime Minister's victory was a narrow one with 208 votes for and 184 against her motion and several left-wing delegates leaving the room to ensure the Prime Minister had the numbers to carry the vote.
Federal Finance Minister Penny Wong, who seconded Mr Barr's motion, was a non-voting delegate at the conference and was powerless to vote for her preferred position of a binding platform.
The position the party reached has been criticised a ''do nothing'' position dressed up as reform because a conscience vote for Labor MP means, in practice, reform would be unlikely to pass through parliament.
But Mr Barr said yesterday he was pleased with the outcome.
''It was my preference for the party to have a binding position but that was just never going to get up,'' Mr Barr said.
''The Prime Minister was not going to be defeated on that motion.
''In the end, my one vote was not going to swing the outcome one way or another.''
Mr Barr said he believed he had achieved nearly all of his aims at the conference.
''When you get 90 per cent of what you want, you take it,'' he said.
Ms Gallagher said her decision to vote against a conscience vote was not based loyalty to her Left faction.
''I don't think it's a conscience matter, I don't think a conscience vote should be had,'' she said.