Treasurer responds to Penny Wong’s concerns that a vote on marriage equality would subject LGBTI people to hate speech

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Scott Morrison has claimed opponents of marriage equality also face “hate speech and bigotry”, equating their experience to that of LGBTI Australians.

The treasurer was speaking on Radio National on Wednesday, responding to a speech by the Labor frontbencher Penny Wong, who said heterosexual politicians did not understand the fear experienced by LGBTI Australians, many of whom oppose a plebiscite on same-sex marriage.

Morrison said: “People of very strong religious views, they have also been subject to quite dreadful hate speech and bigotry as well. It is not confined to one side of this debate.

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“I understand the concern Penny is raising, I know it from personal experience, having been exposed to that sort of hatred and bigotry for the views I’ve taken, from others who have a different view to me.



“But, that said, I have a bigger view of the Australian people … we can deal with this issue as a country once and for all and move on.

“I have an electorate where I cannot represent the view of every person on this issue. People know my view on this in my electorate, and it tends to be, it would seem, the majority view in my electorate.”

Morrison is opposed to same-sex marriage. He said people who disagreed with him on the issue “deserve a say” and the plebiscite was a sensible, practical and inclusive policy.

Responding to the remarks, Bill Shorten said it was “regrettable” that Morrison had “injected himself” in the issue of Wong’s speech about bigotry she had faced.

“I do accept that people of faith sometimes get a hard time. People are entitled to their views in this country and people of religious faith are entitled to respect just like people who hold other views.”

Asked about the issue at a doorstop, Malcolm Turnbull repeated his opinion that a plebiscite campaign would be respectful but did not address Morrison’s claim he and religious Australians had faced bigotry.

“People do have different views on the issue. They are entitled to those views.”

On Tuesday Wong said: “[Malcolm] Turnbull – and many commentators on this subject – don’t understand that for gay and lesbian Australians hate speech is not abstract.”

She said she faced abuse in her Twitter feed that signalled “words that hurt” would be used in the debate against LGBTI Australians less resilient than herself.

Wong said assaults – and worse – of LGBTI Australians were not unknown, even today. “Many gay and lesbian people don’t hold hands on the street because they don’t know what reaction they’ll get,” she said. “Some hide who they are for fear of the consequences at home, at work and at school.

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“Not one straight politician advocating a plebiscite on marriage equality knows what that’s like. What it’s like to live with the casual and deliberate prejudice that some still harbour.”

Labor has stepped up its attack on the government’s plan for a plebiscite on the issue. Bill Shorten described it on Sunday as “a taxpayer-funded platform for homophobia”.

The Greens’ LGBTI spokesman, Robert Simms, told Guardian Australia he was worried about the effect of the plebiscite on young people.

“I remember my own process [of] coming out. How in my home state of South Australia at the opening of the gay lesbian pride parade there were street preachers [speaking against homosexuality],” he said. “I would hate to imagine the effect we’d see in a national plebiscite.”