Claiming children raised by same-sex couples are worse off is “deeply offensive and wrong”, the Business Council of Australia chief executive, Jennifer Westacott, has said.

Speaking to Radio National on Thursday Westacott defended the right of businesses to take a stance on marriage equality and her desire for her more than 30-year same-sex relationship to be treated with the same respect as others.

Asked if the postal survey debate so far had been respectful, Westacott said both sides had “some things to answer for in terms of extreme views either way”.

“When I hear people talking about the children and saying are not going to OK in same-sex relationships, I am deeply offended by that,” she said.

Westacott said she knows “quite a lot about what’s good for children”, invoking her experience running the departments of community services in New South Wales, and housing and education in Victoria.

“Children are better with people who love them and respect them. And I saw some horrific examples of what happened to children in heterosexual relationships – terrible abuse, neglect.”

Westacott said when marriage equality opponents say she and other same-sex couples “are not capable of caring for children, that is deeply hurtful, deeply offensive and deeply wrong”.

At the National Press Club last week, the Australian Christian Lobby director, Lyle Shelton, said same-sex marriage “is trashing the human rights of children”.

The vice-president of the Liberal party, Karina Okotel, said legalising same-sex marriage was wrong because it told children “they must not feel any yearning or incompleteness” for not knowing their biological parents.

Okotel also criticised marriage equality supporters who say it is a “myth that children are best served when raised by a mother and father”.

The vast majority of studies show children with LGBTI parents are no worse off than those with heterosexual parents, including a survey of academic literature by the Australian Institute of Family Studies.

On Thursday Fairfax Media reported that five of Australia’s most respected mental health groups had created a campaign claiming marriage equality could prevent up to 3,000 high school suicide attempts every year.

The groups – ReachOut, Headspace, Orygen, the Black Dog Institute and Sydney University’s Brain and Mind Centre – will launch their #mindthefacts information campaign on Thursday.

Westacott said the marriage equality debate was about respect, acceptance and legitimacy of same-sex relationships.

“I’ve spent my whole life feeling like an outsider. I’ve spent … the long relationship that I’ve been in, which has been a happy and loving relationship, feeling like it doesn’t have the same legitimacy, the same respect, the same acceptance as other people’s relationships.”

Westacott said businesses employ millions of Australians and some had “very strong views” about marriage equality because they stand for “diverse workplaces”.

She said it was inconsistent to encourage businesses to speak out about gender equality, women in leadership and the arts, but not marriage equality.



“I don’t think people can have it both ways, and I think businesses who employ so many people who are big parts of communities are entitled to take views on this, and to have strong opinions either way provided it’s respectful and informed,” she said.

On Wednesday the AFL endorsed marriage equality by changing its three-letter logo to yes. AFL clubs including North Melbourne, St Kilda, the Western Bulldogs, Collingwood, the Sydney Swans and Greater Western Sydney have publicly backed marriage equality.

In a note of dissent Carlton football club issued a statement describing same-sex marriage as an issue “essentially of equality” but stopped short of encouraging a yes vote. It said it would not campaign on the issue because it respected personal choice.

Westacott said it was wrong of businesses to sack employees for their views, after a contractor was allegedly sacked in Canberra for expressing opposition to marriage equality.

Responding to the same allegation, Malcolm Turnbull told Hit105 FM in Brisbane that freedom of speech was “an absolutely fundamental part of our way of life as Australians” and people were entitled to different points of view.

Turnbull said “workplace and anti-discrimination law prohibit employers from sacking or mistreating workers on the basis of their political or religious views but it depends on the circumstances”.