John McVeigh (Groom, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome this significant opportunity to represent the fine electorate of Groom in this debate on the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Bill 2017. We are a very significant part of regional Australia and our voice, like those of other electorates, should be heard here in the national parliament. Our centre of Toowoomba is the second largest inland city in Australia behind this, our national capital, and we are the centre of a significant export-oriented agricultural production region and the centre for education, health and cultural services for southern inland Queensland and northern inland New South Wales.

Like many members in this chamber, I have been engaging right across my electorate on this particular issue, not just in recent weeks since the survey result was released but since the federal election of last year, 18 months ago, in relation to the coalition's commitment to ensuring that all Australians would have the opportunity to have their say on the question of same-sex marriage. I have engaged on those issues in Toowoomba, in Pittsworth and Highfields, and in Oakey and various communities in between. Like many, if not all, electorates, we certainly have our share of passionate advocates for either case in relation to the survey. In the case of Groom, that has included a whole range of representatives of the LGBTIQ community that I've met with and spent time with. It also includes, for example, Lyle Shelton, the Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby, whose home town is Toowoomba, and also one of his campaign colleagues, Dr David van Gend, the President of the Australian Marriage Forum. Through those consultations, I've heard many personal stories. I've shared in many personal stories of people, of family members and of couples wishing to engage in both sides of this debate. All voices needed to be heard, and that's what the survey has enabled us to achieve.

I'm on the record in my community as one who has supported the traditional definition of marriage. That's based wholly and solely on my own relationship. Thirty years ago this year, my wife, Anita, and I were blessed by the sacrament of marriage in the Catholic cathedral in Townsville, by her late uncle, then Father Michael Putney, later Bishop Michael Putney. In local media, requests right across the community, both publicly and, of course, privately on a number of occasions, about my beliefs—my own stance—have been met with my explanation of my personal story. It's very much my view that my relationship with my wife, Anita, is our business. It's no-one else's business. I recognise that such questions are certainly in the sphere for public debate for us politicians, but, just as my relationship is my business, so are other people's relationships. I don't proselytise about mine to others and I'm so pleased that those whom I've engaged with in discussions about same-sex marriage since my election last year have shown me respect for my relationship, just as I have shown respect for and heard the stories about their relationships, both gay and straight.

I respect different views and I recognise that good Australian citizens—peaceful people, philanthropists, business owners, community organisation members and leaders—can be any one of us, in all of our communities across Australia, gay or otherwise. I also reflect that this particular issue has not been the most common issue raised with me as the member for Groom. The more common issues by far include the economy, local jobs, infrastructure, such as the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing, inland rail as it crosses New South Wales into our part of southern Queensland, as you're aware, Mr Deputy Speaker Coulton, telecommunications, Centrelink—and the list goes on.

But I am so proud of the coalition's commitment, as I said earlier, to ensuring that all Australians had the opportunity to have their say on the question of same-sex marriage. That's certainly been embodied in the comprehensive national survey result just completed, which, of course, returned an emphatic 'yes' result in Queensland.

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