Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I support these amendments proposed by Senator Hanson, but in doing so I repeat what Senator Hinch said about himself, and I repeat what many Labor Party people will tell you in this chamber about not their religion but the fact that they don't follow Christianity. That's not talking about their religion, because they don't have a religion and they're the first to admit it. I make no judgement about that. I'm not being judgemental in saying they don't have a religion. A lot of my friends don't have religions, a lot of my friends will not say the Lord's Prayer, but I think when this chamber and this whole debate get to a curtailment of speech where you're not even able to reflect on a fact that people themselves talk about, then Australia, I'm sorry, is heading down a very, very sad path. It's a matter of regret for me that there are many in this chamber who would urge that that happen.

In this whole debate, my position has always been very clear. From my upbringing, my position as a Christian and as a member of the Anglican Church—I challenge anyone to say that I cannot tell this chamber or the world that I am a Christian and a member of the Anglican faith—I've had a view about marriage as being a religious ceremony that I have grown up with. I have found it very difficult to bring together the thoughts of my gay friends having a marriage which I understand to be a religious ceremony.

As I have said many a time, I have many gay friends, including a very loving, personal couple. My argument with them was why they needed to use the word 'marriage'. I could never understand that. I have been a member of a parliament which, over the years, has removed all discrimination against gay people—all discrimination. It was on that basis that I decided I would vote no in the plebiscite. But I also indicated that, as a parliamentarian and one who believes in democracy, if the majority of my fellow Australians had a different view from me then I would be the first to support the ability for same-sex couples to marry. That's what I intend to do and that's what I've made clear all along. But I do think that people who have religious convictions—and there are many in the Labor Party who don't and there are some on my side of politics who don't have religious convictions as well, and that's a matter for them; it's a free country—should, like Senator Hinch, who said that he was an atheist, be able to tell the world their convictions. He should be able to tell the world and tell this parliament that he is an atheist, just as I am able to tell this chamber that I am a Christian—not a very good one, I have to say, but I am a Christian and a member of the Anglican Church. In this chamber, speech should be as free, if not freer, than anywhere else in Australia, and I challenge anyone to say that they can prevent me from telling this chamber my religion and my belief in Christianity.

Madam Chair, this whole debate has, I have to say with regret, shown a lot of disrespect and intolerance. In fact, one of our colleagues who acts in your position when you're not here actually wore an insignia while sitting in the chair indicating a partisan view on this debate. To his credit, when I raised it, he did remove the badge. But I see other senators in this chamber, contrary to standing orders, which seem to be not quite as visible as they are on other occasions, wearing insignias that clearly indicate a position in this debate. I know that's against standing orders, because I once wore a hi-vis shirt that said I supported the coal industry. At the call of those who now think it's okay for them to wear insignias, I was made, on a ruling by the President, to remove that hi-vis shirt. Yet it seems to be in this intolerant age which we are living in that there is one set of rules for some people but a different set of rules for other people, depending on their political philosophy. That intolerance and the intolerance I see in this debate, in fact, saddens me and makes me despair for the future of this great country—a country which, worldwide, is renowned for its freedoms.

We talked about this country having removed several years ago every single discrimination against people who were gay or of that disposition. We've removed every single discrimination from the laws of Australia. I've been one of those who have strongly supported that all of my public life. I raised in the Senate—and you never hear the Greens political party in particular raising this issue—that I recently attended the Inter-Parliamentary Union conference in St Petersburg, where a female Italian delegate berated the Russians for having discrimination against gay people. She said that in Russia they have detention camps—and she named five—where gay people are put. In those international forums, those who are spoken about always have a right of reply. In response, the Russian delegate didn't particularly address that accusation but said to the Italian lady, 'Why are you attacking us? There are parliamentarians in this room who belong to parliaments who have legislated to put to death people who are gay for no other reason than the fact that they are gay.' Do you hear the Greens ever berating those countries—many of them in the Middle East—that have these particular issues? They'll talk about Manus Island. They will work with GetUp! against coalmines, but do they ever raise their voice about the ultimate discrimination of gay people, which is the putting to death of them because of their being?

So, in Australia, when we talk about discrimination, those discriminations of any sort were removed from the Australian laws many years ago. I'm proud to say that, in some small part, I was involved in those pieces of legislation. But it does distress me that we now have this position that, apparently, it seems to some that being religious, being a Christian, suddenly makes you a second-rate citizen, with not the same rights and entitlement to respect that other Australians have. I despair for the future of our country if that intolerance is going to continue to be displayed in the way it has been in some instances in this debate—and, certainly, has been in relation to some of the matters that Senator Hanson mentioned in moving her amendment.

I come back to the point before the chamber. I support Senator Hanson's amendments. As I say, I think there were other amendments that were better framed, but they haven't achieved support in this Senate. So I will be supporting these amendments by Senator Hanson.