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Openly lesbian Labor MP Penny Wong has angered gay marriage advocates.
Comments about same-sex marriage made last week by Federal Labor MP, Penny Wong, the Minister for Climate Change and Water, have outraged gay rights activists.
Wong, a lesbian, appeared as a panelist on the ABC TV program Q&A last Thursday, July 31, alongside Shadow Treasurer Malcolm Turnbull, and openly gay Melbourne man Tim Wilson, representing the Institute of Public Affairs.
The program allows its audience to question the panelists directly. One such question, put to Turnbull and Wong, asked whether they personally supported their party’s respective stances on same-sex marriage.
Turnbull stated that he personally believed marriage was a union between a man and a woman; Wong also toed the party line with her response.
“We made it clear as a party that we would not look at gay marriage; we would recognise the fact that marriage is a heterosexual institution,” she said.
After an additional question by the program’s host, Tony Jones, Wong went on to say, “My view is that I’m a member of the party. The party has a very clear view, and that is a view that is supported, let’s be frank, by the vast majority of Australians.”
Tim Wilson then suggested Wong’s public stance was at odds with her private beliefs.
“I find it really frustrating that within the party room you may very well be vocal, but when you come out here you take this position; the public respects that people can have different opinion from their party but it doesn’t seem that you are allowing that,” Wilson said.
“My view is that frankly that is where most of the community is at … most Australians still regard marriage in the way I have described, and the Labor Party respects that,” Wong replied.
This week, Wilson told MCV he thought Wong’s response “weak”, and that “she was clearly uncomfortable with someone taking her to task on the issue”.
He also refuted Wong’s claim that the “vast majority of Australians” are opposed to same-sex marriage.
“There is a small majority and that’s withering away every day,” Wilson stated.
A 2007 survey backs up Wilson’s claim. The poll, conducted by the grass roots political lobby group Get Up, found that 57 per cent of Australians supported same-sex marriage.
Wong’s comments came shortly before the National Day of Action, held last Sunday, August 3, commemorating the impending anniversary of the Howard Government’s 2004 ban on same-sex marriage.
Co-convener of the Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby (VGLRL) Stephen Jones said the Lobby was “disappointed by Ms Wong’s comments, and the blatant inaccuracies that Australian society rejects same-sex marriage”.
“Sunday’s event showed there is stronger public acceptance than is perceived by political representatives,” he told MCV.
Mainstream media coverage of the issue was welcomed by the VGLRL, Jones added, as it portrayed same-sex couples as deserving of gay marriage.
Activist Rodney Croome said it was a badly-kept secret that behind closed doors, “Wong is a strong advocate [for same-sex marriage], and that Wong is bound by cabinet solidarity”.
“It’s not the people against same-sex marriage, it’s the government,” Croome concluded.
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