Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will take this opportunity to table two petitions regarding matters of great concern to my constituents. Firstly, I have a petition from the parish of the All Saints Catholic Church in Greenwood, a suburb within the electorate of Cowan. That petition relates to the current national debate surrounding gay marriage. I say at the outset that the coalition has a position on this issue, and that is to stand by the current definition of marriage being a convention, an institution, between a man and a woman. I also stand by that position wholeheartedly. I know that many, indeed perhaps the majority, on the other side do not agree with that and instead wish to allow persons of the same sex to marry. I know that the fringe party of Australian politics, the Greens, also wish to undermine the standing and the strength of the family unit with this and other social engineering measures.

On Saturday, 5 February, I visited the All Saints church and met with Michael and Mary Rose; Father Vinh, the parish priest; Sharren Cordina and many other members of the parish. Michael handed me a petition of over 650 names. I note that those who signed it asked me, as the federal MP for Cowan, to ‘protect the unique institution of marriage as traditionally understood and actually lived as the complementary love between a man and a woman’.

It is right that the parliament takes note of this document and, most of all, takes note of its intent to support the institution of marriage, as it is rightly defined. I seek leave to table this document.

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