Former Aussie PM Tony Abbott: ‘Gay marriage would see the erosion of families’
Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has addressed anti-gay lobby group Alliance Defending Freedom in New York overnight, saying that same-sex marriage is still “a huge ask” that would see “the erosion of family”.
It was reported earlier in the week that Abbott would speak before the pro-Christian conservative group about “importance of family”.
Speaking at the Lotte New York Palace Hotel, Abbott said parliamentarians had a responsibility “to build the best possible conditions for families to flourish”, and should preference a traditional family unit of a mother and a father. “Policy makers shouldn’t be judgmental about people’s personal choices, but we can’t be indifferent to the erosion of the family given its consequences for the wider community,” he said.
“It was my distinguished predecessor, John Howard, who pointed out that the traditional family was the best social welfare system that mankind had ever devised.”
Speaking of his own family, Abbott said Western family structures were “typically more complex” with one of his sisters divorced, and the other in a committed gay relationship.
“I doubt that my sister’s female partner would be more part of the family if same sex marriage were permitted – because membership of a family rests on commitment – and commitment is what counts, as much as what it’s called,” he said.
“Right now, in all countries and cultures, people are trying to come to terms with social change that would have been hard to grasp a generation back.
“In Australia, homosexuality has gone from being criminal, to being tolerated, to being accepted. Same sex couples in a domestic partnership now have the same rights as heterosexual ones.”
While Abbott acknowledged the “next change” was working out how same-sex couples “could express their fidelity and permanence”, he said the institution of marriage was “never just about two people who love each other”.
“In Australia, just a decade ago, almost unanimously, the parliament affirmed that marriage was between a man and a woman,” he said.
“Now, there are many MPs who want men to be able to marry men and women to be able to marry women if that’s their choice. But there are also many on the other side who don’t assume that this generation is more enlightened than its forbears and who are reluctant to change what was taken for granted for thousands of years.”
Reaffirming his position the Australian marriage equality debate would be best resolved via a plebiscite vote after the next election, Abbott said the nation could follow the precedent set by Britain and New Zealand and change the definition of marriage “if we really think it best”.
“Around the world, some 17 countries now provide for same sex marriage. But 176 don’t – and few of them are likely to change any time soon,” he said.
“Now, I know that numbers aren’t the only test – but it’s hardly self-evident that the 17 that have changed are right and that all the others are wrong. Not long ago, most gay activists rejected marriage as an oppressive institution. Now, they demand as their right what they recently scorned.
“They demand what was unimaginable in all previous times and still is in most places. They are seeking what has never been and expecting others to surrender what always has.
“It’s a massive ask; for me, an ask too far.”
Abbott finished explaining that despite supporting people’s right’s to fight for what they believe in, “policy makers should strive to hold the common ground” and that “common sense” needed to prevail over “ideology”.
“We shouldn’t try to change something without understanding it, without grasping why it is that one man and one woman open to children until just a very few years ago has always and everywhere been considered the essence of marriage and the heart of family,” he said
“Of course, we can’t shirk our responsibilities to the future; but let’s also respect and appreciate values and institutions that have stood the test of time and pass them on, undamaged, when that’s best.”
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