Tony Abbott and two Liberal ministers have rejected the view of the attorney general, George Brandis, that religious freedom is not at issue in the same-sex marriage postal survey.

Abbott said Australians should vote down marriage equality if they were “concerned about where our country is going” and there was a “real issue” about religious freedom and freedom of speech if same-sex marriage is legalised.

The assistant minister for social services and multicultural affairs, Zed Seselja, and the assistant minister for cities and digital transformation, Angus Taylor, have also said religious freedom is at issue.

The public interventions are designed to bolster the no case in the postal survey, but also suggest if the yes case succeeds, Coalition conservatives could push for more extensive exemptions from discrimination law.

Brandis has said that the bills promoted by him and fellow Liberal senator, Dean Smith, to legalise same-sex marriage contain “very extensive protections of religious freedom”, in addition to the constitutional right of freedom of religion.

The attorney general told Sky on Sunday that he would not be “tricked by Abbott and others who are trying to turn a debate about one issue, that is, whether same-sex couples should be allowed to marry, into a broader debate about religious freedom, because that’s not what this is about”.

Responding to that comment on Monday, Abbott said “a lot of people ... have been saying there is a real issue with the protection for religious freedom and freedom of speech if this thing goes through”.

He said that although “marriage is the immediate focus, there are lots and lots of implications”, suggesting that marriage equality has led to “attacks on what’s taught in schools” in Britain and Canada.

The former prime minister said it would amount to an “officially sanctioned degendering of marriage” that would lead to “gender fluidity programs” like the Safe Schools anti-bullying program.



“I hope every single Australian, especially people concerned about where our country is going, will have their say,” he told 2GB.

“The best way of standing up for traditional values, the best way of saying you don’t like the direction our country is heading in right now is to get that ballot paper out and vote no.”

Seselja said he “respectfully disagrees” with Brandis. “If you look around the world, issues of religious freedom has flowed when we’ve seen a change to the definition of marriage,” he said.

“It does impact upon religious freedom, it does impact upon parental rights and it does impact on freedom of speech.”

Taylor told Sky News on Monday that “there is no doubt [religious freedom] has been a major issue in jurisdictions where same-sex marriage has been implemented”.

“[Religious freedom] needs to be part of this debate and I’m very confident it will be part of that debate.”

He said having “a sense of their own power to say, believe, and think what they want to” was “deep in the Australian spirit”.

The Turnbull government has not said if the postal survey goes ahead and the yes vote succeeds which same-sex marriage bill it will legislate, leaving open the possibility Coalition conservatives could argue for the right of private service providers to reject gay weddings.

On Monday the Coalition for Marriage spokesman, Lyle Shelton, told Guardian Australia both the Smith and Brandis bills “provide only narrow protections for clergy and civil celebrants only, and then only in relation to the wedding ceremony itself”.

“This issue goes far beyond the celebration of a wedding and into employment, education and business. It affects the freedoms of all Australians, not just professional clerics,” he said.

The Liberal MP, Tim Wilson, said proponents of religious freedom should vote yes, because it would allow the Coalition government to draft protections rather than see same-sex marriage legislated under Labor and the Greens.

On Sunday the archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, Australia’s most senior Catholic, warned the church’s 180,000 employees they were expected to uphold its teachings “totally”, reserving the church’s right to sack them if they attempted to wed their partner of the same sex.

The shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, told ABC Radio the Sex Discrimination Act allowed religious organisations, including their schools, to refuse to hire same-sex-attracted people. He dismissed the Catholic threat as “irrelevant scaremongering”.

“It’s a distraction from the debate about marriage equality to raise this question of hiring and firing, that’s already part of our law, there are already exemptions.”

The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, told a press conference in Sydney on Monday religious practice was not under threat, labelling the debate about religious freedom a “distraction” and “a separate discussion”.

Shorten said that opponents of marriage equality “wanted this survey, and now [they] are trying to throw every other issue into the mix”.



“If we have to have this vote don’t muddy the waters and don’t cloud the issues by trying to throw every issue in including the kitchen sink. It is not fair and it demeans the argument, I think.”

The Greens LGBTI spokeswoman, Janet Rice, said the Catholic church’s threat was “sad” and showed “how out of touch they are with mainstream Australia”.

“There’ll be so many disappointed LGBTI Catholics in schools, aged care and hospitals who feel they have to choose between their faith and their job,” she said.



While Labor has no policy to remove the existing religious exemptions from discrimination law, the Greens promised to do so before the last election.

Rice said while the Greens still believe they “are too far-reaching and should be challenged” the exemptions should be dealt with in anti-discrimination legislation, not as part of the marriage debate.