Social services minister Kevin Andrews has booked out the main committee room of parliament house on behalf of an anti-gay marriage organisation which is linked to the controversial World Congress of Families.
The Australian Families Association (AFA) is commemorating the tenth anniversary of the redefining of marriage as “between a man and a woman” in the 2004 amendment of the Marriage Act with a conference on “strengthening the family”.
In past years the organisation has held public events at parliament house. This year’s affair is a private event with all MPs invited to attend. The committee room must be booked by a sitting member. Andrews booked the room for the organisation, but is not attending, a spokeswoman told Guardian Australia.
The AFA conference on Wednesday will hear from a number of speakers on “relationship literacy for youth, strengthening marriages, family-based taxation and the economics of the family”.
The organisation will call for the government to “renew a culture of strong and lasting marriages by educating young people about the benefits of marriage and getting government taxation and support structures right,” the AFA’s national president Terri Kelleher said in a statement.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said it was “disappointing that government members are bringing these extreme views to parliament”.
“Having said that, the best way to shore up support for marriage equality is to let these groups speak their mind,” she told Guardian Australia.
“In decades gone by it was interracial marriage, but now it’s same-sex marriage that will apparently cause the downfall of society. The passage of time will not be kind to these homophobic and outdated views.
“If Abbott government ministers are comfortable associating themselves with these views, they’ll have to explain that to the public.”
The event will open with a speech from Kelleher, and will also hear from Peter Westmore, the national president of the National Civic Council. Bob McCoskrie of Family First New Zealand will chair two of the sessions, according to the World Congress of Families, which is promoting the event in its newsletter. The organisation said all three speakers are WCF partners.
The World Congress of Families is the global conservative Christian organisation which was scheduled to hold a controversial regional event in Melbourne this weekend, but was left in chaos after four venues backed out because of the safety risk posed by planned protests.
A lineup of speakers was set to address crowds, speaking out against divorce, same-sex marriage, abortion and euthanasia, drawing condemnation from civil rights groups and medical associations.
Andrews and anti-abortion campaigner and Victorian upper house Liberal member Bernie Finn had agreed to speak, and on Tuesday told Guardian Australia they still intended to.
The WCF named Andrews as its 2014 “Natural Family Man of the Year”, an award given “to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to promoting a greater understanding of the centrality of the ‘natural family’ to a prosperous, stable and free society and civilisation”.
An organiser for the Melbourne event told Guardian Australia they still did not have a confirmed venue but were considering bussing people from the CBD to somewhere outside the city.
Andrews addressed an 2012 rally held by the AFA in the Great Hall of Parliament House, telling attendees there was no “widespread agitation” to change the definition of marriage, except from “a small minority who wish to reorder society in their own vision.”
“Such proposals are counter to reality. It extends the reach of the state beyond its rightful sphere and it endangers, ultimately, the wellbeing and the welfare of children which marriage primarily protects,” he said.
A 2011 event heard addresses from QLD MP Bob Katter and Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce.
A spokesman for the AFA told Guardian Australia the association was invited to be involved in the WCF event on Saturday, but declined.
Comments (…)
Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion