History In New Zealand: Marriage Passes

The singing!

With the flowers is MP Louisa Walls, the bill's main sponsor.

Parliament has just passed a law legalising gay marriage, 77 votes to 44, amid loud shows of jubilation from the floor and the gallery. The declaration of the vote was followed by a waiata. MPs held a conscience vote on the private member's bill sponsored by gay Labour MP Louisa Wall.

The bill will take effect in mid August and comes 27 years after New Zealand decriminalised homosexuality. "Yay, we did it,'' was the celebratory catch cry from Ms Wall when she spoke to media waiting in Parliament tonight after the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill passed by 77 votes to 44.

Green MP Kevin Hague, National list MP Tau Henare, deputy Labour leader Grant Robertson, Labour MP Maryan Street and convenor of the Marriage Equality campaign Conrad Reyners clapped when Ms Wall spoke.

UPDATE: The song is Pokarekare Ana, a "traditional New Zealand Maori love song" and the nation's unofficial national anthem. Gorgeous.