27 May 2017 David Adams

Amid growing furore in Australia over tennis champion Margaret Court's comments this week opposing same-sex marriage, Lyle Shelton, managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby, has spoken out in defence of free speech.

In a statement issued on Friday, Mr Shelton said that whatever side Australians are on with regard to the debate on redefining marriage, "all of us have got to ask ourselves what side of the freedom of speech debate we are on".

His comments came after Ms Court said in a letter to The West Australian newspaper published this week that she would boycott using Qantas "where possible" in protest at the airlines' promotion of same-sex marriage. Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has been a vocal supporter of legalising same-sex marriage in Australia.

Mr Shelton said that while he didn't agree with Mr Joyce's view's in support of same-sex marriage, he respected his position. But he added that people, "like Margaret Court, who is my friend, are also entitled to take their travel business elsewhere".

"We must have a free society," he said. “I will still be travelling with Qantas while continuing to publicly advocate for preserving the definition of marriage. I would expect that Mr Joyce, while disagreeing with me, has the good grace to allow me to continue patronising his airline.”

And despite calls for the Melbourne's Margaret Court Arena to be renamed due to Ms Court's views on same-sex marriage, Mr Shelton said he welcomed Tennis Australia's decision not to do so.

He also welcomed comments from Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull who said this week that whatever people may think of her views on gay marriage, "the Margaret Court Arena celebrates Margaret Court the tennis player". “She’s one of the greatest greats of tennis and that’s why the arena is named after her," Mr Turnbull said.

Ms Court told Sight in an interview published in February that she had "nothing against homosexual people". "I don’t hate them but it is a choice and I think [we should] protect marriages," she said. "If they want to live a lifestyle like that, go ahead, live a lifestyle like that but don’t touch marriage because marriage was ordained between a man and a woman to multiply the Earth, to have children. And that’s how God created and made it.”