A Turnbull government minister with oversight of the postal survey on same-sex marriage has issued a fresh apology for once describing homosexuality as "sordid behaviour" and blaming gay people for the AIDS epidemic.

A newspaper column penned 25 years ago by Nationals MP and Small Business Minister Michael McCormack resurfaced on Friday morning.

The column, published in Wagga's Daily Advertiser in 1993 when Mr McCormack was the editor, claimed that "a week never goes by anymore that homosexuals and their sordid behaviour don't become further entrenched in society".

"Unfortunately gays are here and, if the disease their unnatural acts helped spread doesn't wipe out humanity, they're here to stay," he wrote.