Daniel Munoz / Reuters

Gay rights activists hold a rainbow flag during a rally to support same-sex marriage in central Sydney August 11.

Australian lawmakers voted on Wednesday by more than two-to-one against a proposal to legalize gay marriage.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that 98 members of the House of Representatives – including Prime Minister Julia Gillard -- voted against the plan, while 42 had supported it.

However Labor party politician Anthony Albanese, who supported the law, said that "all the figures show that there is majority community support on this issue... and I think at some future time, parliament will catch up with the community opinion," the broadcaster reported. "Just a few years ago there wouldn't have been the support of anything like 42 votes on the floor of the national parliament for a marriage equality bill," Albanese said.

ABC reported that the head of the Australian Christian Lobby, Jim Wallace, had in a statement thanked those politicians who “as a matter of conscience, voted to ensure that marriage remained between a man and a woman."

ABC noted that Senator Cory Bernardi, of the center-right Liberal party, had resigned as a parliamentary secretary to his party’s leader Tony Abbott, after suggesting during a Senate debate Tuesday night that the next step after same-sex marriage would be to allow “three or four people that love each other being able to enter into a permanent union endorsed by society -- or any other type of relationship.”

He then added that there were “even some creepy people out there... [who] say it is OK to have consensual sexual relations between humans and animals,” Bernardi said, according to ABC. |Will that be a future step? In the future will we say, 'These two creatures love each other and maybe they should be able to be joined in a union.’ I think that these things are the next step.”

Supporter still 'confident'
The Age newspaper reported that advocates of same-sex marriage would now seek to persuade states within Australia to change the law.

"Now the federal parliament has effectively brushed the wishes of a majority of Australians aside, the states and territories will take the lead, making me confident we will see same sex marriages performed somewhere in Australia by the end of the year," Australian Marriage Equality convener Alex Greenwich said, according to the paper.

The Age added that in August Tasmania’s lower house had passed a bill to legalize gay marriage, which would now go to the state’s Legislative Council.

The paper said that Congress was to vote on another same-sex marriage bill Thursday.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong, whose partner Sophie Allouache gave birth to a baby girl in December, said Wednesday that she was hurt by the claim from some senators that children of same-sex couples were worse off than those of mixed-gender couples, The Age reported.

"I do not regret that our daughter has Sophie and I as parents," Wong added. "I do regret that she lives in a world where some will tell her that her family is not normal. I regret that even in this chamber, elected representatives denigrate the worth of her family.”

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Australia Parliament

Australian House or Representatives Speaker Peter Slipper

Australian Parliament Speaker Peter Slipper stepped down temporarily Sunday amid charges of fraud and claims he sexually harassed a male staffer, national media reported.

Slipper, 62, in a prepared statement upon his return to the country from Los Angeles, said he “emphatically” denied the charges, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

“The allegations include both a claim of criminal behavior and claim under civil law,” Slipper said.

To keep the integrity of Australia’s democratic institutions, he said, “I believe it is appropriate for me to stand aside as speaker while this criminal allegation is resolved."

Allegations of criminally misusing taxi payment vouchers were brought by openly gay adviser James Ashby, 33, who is suing the government and Slipper in a civil case over claims Slipper made unwanted sexual advances toward Ashby and had sent him sexually explicit text messages.

Slipper is married and has two adult children from a previous marriage.

Deputy Speaker and Labor Parliament Member Anna Burke will take Slipper’s role, the Herald reported.

Slipper’s move threatens Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s hold on power, as her government will lose its single-seat majority in Parliament's 150-member House of Representatives.

Slipper resigned from the Liberal Party to become speaker in a November 2011 move engineered by Gillard.

The prime minister was under pressure to force Slipper out before parliament returns May 8 if he wouldn’t leave on his own, the Australian Associated Press reported.

"It is appropriate that Mr. Slipper has stood aside as Speaker whilst alleged criminal conduct is investigated," Gillard said in a statement.

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Lukas Coch / AFP - Getty Images

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard is rushed out of a Canberra restaurant by security agents on Thursday, losing a shoe in the process.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard is on firm footing again.

A blue suede shoe that she lost as she was hustled away by security officers from a Canberra restaurant that was surrounded by aboriginal-rights protesters has been returned.

Gillard lost the size-8 shoe off her right foot on Thursday when she stumbled during the rowdy fray, and it was scooped up by protesters. One protester gleefully raised the footwear above her head and shouted, ''Gingerella, come get your shoe.''

On Friday night, someone returned the shoe to a security guard outside the main entrance at Parliament House, AAP reported.

Meanwhile, the fallout from the fracas has led to the resignation of one of Gillard’s press secretaries, Tony Hodges. He acknowledged tipping off protesters that Oppositionn Leader Tony Abbott was going to be at the Canberra restaurant with the prime minister at an award ceremony to mark Australia Day, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The restaurant where Thursday's clash occurred is close to the so-called Aboriginal Tent Embassy, where the protesters had demonstrated peacefully earlier in the day. That long-standing, ramshackle collection of tents and temporary shelters is a center point of protests against Australia Day, which marks the arrival of the first fleet of British colonists in Sydney on Jan. 26, 1788. Many Aborigines call it Invasion Day because the land was settled without a treaty with the traditional owners.

Abbott was the focus of much of the protesters' rage. The Tent Embassy celebrated its 40th anniversary on Thursday, and Abbott had earlier angered activists by saying it was time the embassy "moved on." Abbott said Friday that his comment had been misinterpreted, and that he never meant to imply the embassy should be torn down.

Meanwhile, the makers of Gillard's now-famous "missing" shoe are hoping to cash in on her Cinderella moment. Melbourne-based Midas plans to release a new version of the shoe dubbed the "Julia," the Herald Sun reported.

Msnbc.com's James Eng and The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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CANBERRA -- Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard was dragged away by security guards Thursday after she was trapped in a restaurant by rowdy protesters demonstrating for indigenous rights following a ceremony to mark Australia's national day.

Some 200 supporters of Aboriginal rights surrounded a Canberra restaurant and banged on its windows while Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott were inside officiating at an award ceremony.

The protesters were marching at the nearby Aboriginal Tent Embassy to mark 40 years since its establishment and rushed the restaurant in response to comments by Abbott earlier in the day, The Australian newspaper reported.

"Look, I can understand why the Tent Embassy was established all those years ago. I think a lot has changed for the better since then," Abbott said earlier Thursday.

• More photos: Australia's prime minister escorted to safety

"I think the indigenous people of Australia can be very proud of the respect in which they are held by every Australian and yes, I think a lot has changed since then and I think it probably is time to move on from that," he said.

Lukas Coch / EPA

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard is escorted by police and bodyguards out of a restaurant after aboriginal Tent Embassy protesters tried to get into the building in Canberra, Australia, on Thursday.

The newspaper reported that according to protesters, his remarks were interpreted as a call to take down the Tent Embassy, a ramshackle collection of tents and temporary shelters in the national capital that is a center point of protests against Australia Day.

Invasion Day
Australia Day marks the arrival of the first fleet of British colonists in Sydney on Jan. 26, 1788. Many Aborigines call it Invasion Day because the land was settled without a treaty with traditional owners.

Around 50 police escorted the political leaders from a side door to a car. Gillard stumbled, losing a shoe. Her personal security guard wrapped his arms around her and supported her to the waiting car, shielding her from the angry crowd.

Darkinjung Aboriginal Land Council Leader Sean Gordon told The Sydney Morning Herald that Abbott's comments had been read out to the crowd, which had been rallying peacefully until then.

"It was like waving a red flag at a bull," he said.

David Crosling / AP, file

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy, set up in 1972, sits on the lawn of the Old Parliament House building in Canberra.

Protesters chanted "shame" and "racist" outside the restaurant.

One of the Tent Embassy's founders, Michael Anderson, said after the incident that Abbott's remarks were "madness," the Herald reported.

"What he said amounts to inciting racial riots," he said.

Gillard was unharmed and hosted another Australia Day function at her official residence in Canberra later Thursday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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