MEDIA RELEASE
For release: 24 August, 2011
The Australian Christian Lobby said today’s report back in Parliament on constituents views on same-sex marriage showed that the community wasn’t in favour of changing the definition of marriage.
Managing Director Jim Wallace said of the 30 MPs who spoke in Parliament today, 18 said an extraordinary majority in their electorates supported retaining the current definition of marriage, six said they favoured changed and six didn’t indicate the numbers in their electorate.
“The numbers in support of the traditional definition of marriage were overwhelming,” said Mr Wallace.
“For example, in the Federal seat of Hinkler Paul Neville reported support for marriage staying the same was 595 to 14; in the seat of Dawson George Christensen reported 456 to 78; in the seat of O’Connor the member Tony Crook reported 523 to 115; in Deakin the member Mike Symon reported 1015 to 65, in Blair the member Shayne Neumann reported 580 to 115; in Cook Scott Morrison reported 850 to 50; in the seat of Cowan the member Luke Simpkins reported 903 to 103 and in Fowler the member Chris Hayes said 90 per cent of his electorate supported marriage.
“It’s hard to imagine that won’t convert into a very significant level of support across the great majority of electorates.
“Only six people in the morning session indicated their electorates were for same-sex marriage, but all but two of those didn’t seem to have eliminated activists’ emails from outside the electorate.
“Importantly, many MPs reported on the attempts by the gay lobby to warp the polls by clearly organised voting from outside the electorates,” he said, “with one saying he had had to discount at least 700 emails when they were found to be external to his electorate.
“People speaking in support of marriage have been continually demonised as homophobic and bigoted by the gay lobby and in a minority,” said Mr Wallace.
“But this should give everyone heart that whatever happens in the rest of this debate, that where people can silently put their view without fear of intimidation, there is very strong support for retaining marriage, especially given the numbers as high as 90 per cent of the electorate given by some MPs.
“This is not a matter of discrimination – it is about retaining a definition that is clearly very important to a great number of people,” said Mr Wallace.
Dear Julie Bishop
As a Christian and retired marriage counsellor, I write to say that I am against same sex marriages which is “an abomination in the sight of God” and untenable under any circumstances.
Jean Leembruggen
Congratulations to ACL for their well organised campaign to support the current definition of marriage between a man and woman. May you continue to garner support for this campaign as has been shown thus far.
Yes, well done ACL, good job and keep up the good work.
The natural order of life is for marriage to be between a man and a woman. How else can the species be sustained ?
The Greens are displaying that their prime drive is not conservation but is to redesign the structure of society to meet their minority views.
Great work, God bless you all.
well done ACL! The Green minority agenda has been shown for what it is, a small minority. It is a sad inditment of our political system that a political party with such a small % of votes can dictate a countries direction and morals.
Both the ALP and the Greens have made serious errors in judgement to back such a fringe issue as homosexual marriage. If these parties want to represent the rights of those who need a voice they should start to focus on real disadvantage of the more than 2 million Australians that live below the poverty line and not very marginal and fringe issues such as homosexual marriage.
The ALP and the Greens now need to lift their game and assist those who really need to be represented such as the needy who are the 2 million below the poverty line and not indulge in the culture war that the homosexual community want to engage in.
Neither the ALP or the Greens deserve to be anywhere near government and fortunately the ALP will be safely out of power at the next election.
Well done ACL and all who contacted their local federal Polly. Great work!
I Quite happy of the result.Is shoving the POWER of the silent majority!
Is not only a victory for marriage,is a step forward for the silent majority to be incident in the community,the minority who is so active need to be restrained.
Parliamentary is a Honor give by citizen which include service them,in a world so distress we need not to waste precious time just to defend fundamental obvious status.
My hope that our representative from all party had learn from this, and will silent such destruction of time, which can be use for more pressing need of the nation.
Gay and Lesbian need help to found happiness and changes.God is big and can do for the ones who will listen.
There are many more issue facing the nation far so long ignore,social Justice is the foundation of a healthy nation and include the defence of the poor.
Thanks Jesus
This is precisely why I am a supporter of the ACL. Fantastic job organising this defence of God’s plan and Christian values.
Great Effort ACL!
I dont need reminding why I support your organisation, I see that every day in society and politics, but when the victories so often seem to be negated by the press and the politicians this is a major “goal”.
Now it will be interesting to see what the politicians do with it… will the ALP make the amtter the subject of a conscience vote or retain existing policy? The “battleground” is right here, today.
Thank you Jim and team for your tireless efforts.
Congratulations Jim and the ACL team, as well as all those who responded. Glad to to be a supporter of ACL. Sadly it does seem that we will need to continue to be on the front foot over this issue.
What a wonderful result!! Thanks to Jim and the team of ACL who encouraged everyone to contact their reps. I know the fight isn’t over and we need to keep praying about it but we stood together this time and can do it again. Hopefully this result will encourage us to stand up for what is right in the future. God bless and well done!!
An encouraging outcome but regretfully not the end of the matter. It does, however, give hope to those arguing for no change to the current definition of marriage in the Commonwealth Marriage Act. Congratulations to ACL for its part in this outcome.