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

I also welcome the opportunity to make some comments, although rather briefly, on this motion today. At the last federal election I received just over 50 per cent of the primary vote, which I think is probably the first time that has happened in the electorate of Cowan. So I would like to believe—and certainly from the times I have been out on the streets and in shopping centres and doorknocking— that in most respects I represent the interests of my community very well. Although I am as regular as I can be at the Warwick Church of Christ I do believe that the way I feel about things is pretty much the way most people in Cowan feel about things.

On this occasion I certainly take the opportunity to thank the people of Cowan who have expressed their views to me on the issue of same-sex marriage. Many have done so. I still have emails coming in to me today on this day set down for this debate. I state that those who have made their views known have done so strongly and utterly supporting the existing definition of marriage. The results have been overwhelming, with 903 supporting the definition of marriage as it is whilst 103 supported a change. Yet, despite the overwhelming result, I do thank those that did make their views known on both sides of the issue. However, it is worth saying that most of those who supported a change in the definition sent form emails which of course then required verification as to whether they were actually local people. Some then, realising what it was about, recanted on their support for same-sex marriage when we questioned where they were and their support for same-sex marriage.

In a lot of respects what was involved was a ticking of a box on a website. But on the other side, when you looked at the emails—and I looked at them as they came in—there was some more personal involvement in the writing of the emails. I think that this is possibly a lesson for those advocates who encourage contact with MPs by ticking boxes on websites that you need to try to engage people so that they can personally express their views rather than just clicking so that it is exactly the same email time after time. Again, for those that on both sides put a passionate and motivated individual effort into their contact with my office, I do appreciate that, because those matters are heartfelt. I certainly put more confidence in those sorts of views than in those who just send a form email.

I have just received a contact from a constituent named Eleanor. She sent an email just as I was waiting for my opportunity to speak. She told me that she had tried on many occasions to send an email and she was using it through a particular website—to which I understood she has added some personal comments—and she was under the impression that the website was under a cyberattack because it was in support of the current definition of marriage. It is unfortunate that people have chosen to take their fight and their beliefs to those sorts of extremes that they tend to try to undermine alternative views. As has been said already in this place, it is always a cheap shot to use name calling to try to denigrate people on the other side to make them feel their personal viewpoint is not legitimate because they might be called homophobic.

As I have said in the past, I personally support the current definition of 'marriage' as being the union of a man and a woman. I believe that the natural family needs to be supported and the definition of 'marriage' as being between a man and a woman does this, and this special position should not be watered down under any circumstances. This is my report from the electorate of Cowan.

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