Sydney’s Catholic archbishop, Anthony Fisher, has lashed out at the leader of the opposition in the Senate, Penny Wong, accusing her of characterising all opposition to same-sex marriage as hateful.



Fisher made the remarks in an opinion piece for Guardian Australia in which he lends support for a marriage equality plebiscite as a fair method to resolve the contentious social issue.

He took aim at Wong’s speech last week in the Lionel Murphy memorial lecture about LGBTI Australians’ fears about a marriage equality plebiscite.

Fisher claimed Wong had argued that “opposition to same-sex marriage is essentially homophobia”.

Wong said: “Opponents of marriage equality already use words that hurt.”

She added that “words aren’t the only weapons wielded by some of those who harbour animosity towards gay and lesbian people”, citing assaults against LGBTI people.

Wong argued that straight politicians advocating a plebiscite did not know “what it’s like to live with the casual and deliberate prejudice that some still harbour”.

Fisher asked: “Is it true that all defenders of the traditional definition of marriage act out of ‘condemnation … animosity … casual and deliberate prejudice … [and] hate’ towards same-sex attracted people, as Penny Wong suggests?”

He noted that Bill Shorten had previously opposed marriage equality, and Wong had backed Labor’s position, which was also to oppose it.

“I do not think they were being hateful bigots at that time,” he said.

“Others still hold the position these leaders previously held – why presume they are driven by hate?”

Fisher speculated that changing social attitudes to same-sex marriage might be the result of people genuinely changing their minds or “[being] cowed into silence by fear they will be tagged ‘bigot’ if they don’t”.

He said many “ordinary Australians” knew and loved same-sex-attracted people and recognised they had suffered prejudice, but still support traditional marriage. “Such ordinary Australians are not bigots,” he said.

Fisher rejected Wong’s and Shorten’s claims that a plebiscite would license hate speech. “Once levelled and much repeated, this charge gathers momentum and becomes the new orthodoxy: all dissent is dismissed as religious, groundless and hateful,” he said.

He argued that public discourse would be enriched through a national conversation around a plebiscite, in which people would learn the reasons why others held contrary views.

He described the plebiscite as a “not inappropriate” way to make “an unprecedented change to our social constitution”.

“Those who propose to change this radically are asked by the plebiscite to give reasons sufficient to persuade not just politicians but the whole Australian community. I am confident we can conduct such a conversation charitably and wisely.”

In 2015 the Catholic church distributed pamphlets deriding same-sex relationships as “friendships” which, unlike “real marriage”, are not “ordered towards the generation and wellbeing of children”.

Other campaign material against marriage equality has included a Marriage Alliance advertisement depicting a rainbow noose around a praying woman’s neck with the tagline “same-sex marriage increases PC bullying”, and pamphlets claiming children of same-sex couples may be more likely to be victims of sexual abuse, abuse drugs or suffer depression.