Greens candidate complains to discrimination commissioner but archbishop cites right to free speech over booklet given to Tasmanian Catholic schools

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

An anti-marriage equality booklet published by the Catholic church could cause “immeasurable harm” and should be investigated by Tasmania’s anti-discrimination commissioner, a marriage equality advocate says.

But Hobart’s Catholic archbishop argues the church is simply exercising its right to free speech on an important issue.

On Monday, Martine Delaney – who is also Greens candidate for the federal seat of Franklin – delivered her complaint to the office of the commissioner, asking that Archbishop Julian Porteous and the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference be investigated over the booklet, Don’t Mess With Marriage, which was distributed in June to about 12,000 Tasmanian families whose children attend Catholic schools.

“This booklet says same-sex partners don’t deserve equal recognition, same-sex-attracted people are not ‘whole’ people and the children of same-sex partners are not ‘healthy’,” Delaney said.

“By spreading this message, the church does immeasurable harm to the wellbeing of same-sex couples and their families across Tasmania and the nation.”

But in the lead-up to a plebiscite on the issue of same-sex marriage, which the federal government suggests will occur during the next parliament, Archbishop Porteous said it is important that there be an open and free debate.

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“The [booklet] affirms the dignity of all human beings regardless of their physical characteristics, gender or the orientation of their sexual attraction,” Archbishop Porteous said in a statement on Monday.

“And condemns in the strongest terms any form of unjust discrimination.”

He said some people want Christians prevented from publicly expressing their views on important social issues.

“Increasingly they are trying to manipulate anti-discrimination legislation to achieve this end.

“This represents the rise of a new intolerance against Christianity in Australian society and more generally a threat to freedom of speech.”

Delaney said the church was entitled to share its message but that it had not been done responsibly and that the publication offends, humiliates and insults same-sex attracted people and the children of same-sex partners.

Archbishop Porteous said the church has a positive vision of human sexuality, marriage and family life and the booklet aims to explain why it defends the current legal definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman.