Liberal senator attacks prime minister in blog post over comments Turnbull made on Q&A and says they have never discussed homophonbia

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Liberal senator Cory Bernardi has launched a blistering attack on Malcolm Turnbull, accusing him of implying that he and other Coalition MPs are homophobic.

Bernardi makes the claim in an explosive blog post criticising the prime minister for comments he made on ABC’s Q&A program on Monday.

Labor has leapt on the remarks, saying they show the Liberal party is divided and Turnbull cannot hope to restrain his MPs from engaging in “extreme” campaigning against same-sex marriage at any future plebiscite on the issue.

Cory Bernardi's demotion on Liberal ticket puts cloud over senator's future Read more

On Monday Turnbull was asked how the views of Sheikh Shady Alsuleiman were any worse than the comments by Bernardi suggesting that homosexuality leads to bestiality or George Christensen linking the Safe Schools program to paedophile grooming.

In response, Turnbull repeated his condemnation of Alsuleiman’s views, saying that any disparagement based on a person’s sexuality was unacceptable.

The show’s host, Tony Jones, asked whether Turnbull had said the same to Bernardi.

He replied: “I have said – yes, I have had firm discussions with a number of colleagues. Yes.”

In his blog post, Bernardi said: “By saying he’d had firm discussions with a number of colleagues, Turnbull gave implicit support to the claim that myself and other Coalition MPs are homophobic and implied that he’d had a conversation with me about homophobia.

“For the record I have never had such a conversation with any of my colleagues because they know that any such claims cannot be backed with facts.”

Bernardi also disputed that comments he made in 2012 which led to his resignation as Tony Abott’s parliament secretary were homophobic. Bernardi had said that “the next step” after abandoning the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman was polygamy.

“There are even some creepy people out there … [who] say it is OK to have consensual sexual relations between humans and animals,” he said.

Bernardi said the Q&A discussion on Monday had “deliberately misrepresent[ed] my previous statements that redefining marriage to include same-sex couples will only lead to further calls for other changes down the track”.

“It’s the lived experience overseas and we’d be foolish to think it wouldn’t happen here too.”

Bernardi said: “The demand for tolerance by leftists is nothing more than a thinly veiled insistence that you surrender your views, your values and your beliefs in favour of theirs.”

“If you don’t, the name calling starts. You instantly become a ‘phobe’, a ‘bigot’ or worse. These slurs are designed to shut down any sensible dialogue or meaningful discussion about the subject matter at hand.”

Labor’s deputy leader, Tanya Plibersek, said the spat illustrated “the sort of division and, lack of clarity that we would expect to see more generally through this plebiscite process”.

“I think, it’s very clear that the prime minister is not able to control elements of his own party, and that we can expect elements of the Liberal party to be extreme in their language, and extreme in their campaigning against marriage equality, if this plebiscite should go ahead.”

Plibersek reiterated Labor’s opposition to the plebiscite, which is also opposed by Australian Marriage Equality, the Greens and Nick Xenophon.

Earlier on Wednesday the treasurer, Scott Morrison, said he and other religious Australians opponents of marriage equality also face “hate speech and bigotry” in the same-sex marriage debate.

Cory Bernardi: recognising overseas same-sex marriages subverts Australian law Read more

Plibersek said: “It’s pretty different being a cabinet minister in a federal government, the power you have in a role like that, from being a young teenager somewhere, worried about coming out, worried that your family or community won’t be comfortable with their sexual orientation.”

“People don’t choose their sexuality. They don’t choose to be born gay, and those teenagers growing up, hearing a message, not that their views are wrong, but that they themselves, in their very makeup, there’s something wrong with them, I think that’s profoundly damaging.”

Turnbull reiterated his support for a plebiscite on Wednesday, saying it would be conducted in a respectful manner.