INVERELL-based Senator John Williams has defended the “traditional” marriage between man and woman, in the wake of a cross-party bill move to debate same-sex marriage.
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“I support the traditional marriage of a man and a woman. I’ve always supported that and always will,” Senator Williams said.
He said he believed his stance reflected his personal views, as well as that of his electorate and the National Party.
“I do support total equality in legal representation,” he said.
“I believe they should be treated as equal to heterosexual couples, except (the word) marriage. If they want a legal, binding partnership, why don’t they call it something else? I could live with that without any problems.”
Senator Williams said he didn’t want to see priests and wedding service providers sued for not catering to gay marriage.
“I don’t want more legal disputes, when they are doing what they believe is right by their conscience ... for sticking to their religious belief,” he said.
“I just want to retain the institution of marriage for how it has been for thousands of years.
“One thing that does annoy me ... it’s disgusting we get called homophobic – I think we’ve become very tolerant.”
Earlier last week, Tamworth couple Sarah Mayo and Lucy McCowen urged the community to strive for acceptance, not just tolerance.
A cross-party equal marriage bill, sponsored by MPs from Liberal, Labor and independents, will be introduced to parliament on August 11, but Mr Williams said many bills didn’t get a hearing and he doubted this one would be debated in the near future.
Mr Williams said recent international developments – in Ireland and the US – were unconvincing. Despite the “yes” vote being carried by more than 60 per cent, Mr Williams said as voting was not compulsory in Ireland, it was not an accurate picture of the population’s views.
He said the US Supreme Court decision to legalise gay marriage in all 50 states was split five to four, which did not convince him.
Mr Williams’ comments came after Senator Eric Abetz questioned whether Australia should instead be following Asia on the issue, not Ireland and the US.
“The Labor Party and other journalists tell us time and time again that we are living in the Asian century; tell me how many Asian countries have redefined marriage?” Senator Abetz said during an interview on ABC radio.
