Pauline Hanson claims legalising gay marriage could lead to children being banned from calling their parents mum and dad.
The One Nation leader said students drawing pictures of their parents in class might be told to refer to them by their given names instead.
‘Sorry you can no longer call that parent mum or dad because it is going to offend the children who don’t have a mum or dad,’ she told the Senate on Wednesday.
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Pauline Hanson claims legalising gay marriage could lead to children being banned from calling their parents mum and dad
The controversial MP declared she would ignore a majority ‘yes’ result of the upcoming postal vote because it wouldn’t be reflective of the people’s wishes
‘So is it going to be “you must call that person [by their names]” and there is no longer mums or dads, it’s no longer grandma or granddad?
‘This is the impact that it’s having in other places, so I’ve been told.’
Senator Hanson said voters should think of the children of gay married couples, who wouldn’t get to vote on the issue.
She said they may one day say: ‘You’ve denied us the right to a mum and dad.’
The controversial MP declared she would ignore a majority ‘yes’ result of the upcoming postal vote because it wouldn’t be reflective of the people’s wishes.
She also feared anti-vilification laws, which cleared parliament on Wednesday in an attempt to stamp out offensive campaign ads (pictured), would shut down free speech
Numerous ads like this one have popped up around Australia in the leadup to the postal vote
‘I feel it’s a sham, it’s farcical and it’s a waste of money… What a joke, what an absolute joke,’ she said of spending $112 million on the poll.
Senator Hanson said the money would be better spent on family law system as people were committing suicide because it was in such disarray.
She also feared anti-vilification laws, which cleared both houses of parliament on Wednesday, would shut down the ‘no’ campaign and free speech.
The conservative firebrand then claimed many gay couples didn’t want to get married so it was a small minority pushing their agenda.
She slammed gay couples for trying to ‘take the word marriage’ when they should instead compromise and accept it being called a civil union.
Senior Labor figure Penny Wong (second from left) delivered an impassioned speech to the Senate urging the prime minister to protect children like her own
‘Australians are fed up with this, they are son sick of hearing about this constantly, they just want to move on because there are more important issues in this country,’ she said.
Conservative crossbencher Cory Bernardi, who also opposed the vilification bill , warned there would be spurious claims from people claiming to be upset.
‘This is essentially 18C on steroids to protect people from being upset,’ he said, referring to race hate-speech laws he has fought to scrap.
He claimed it was ‘wholly inappropriate’ that Attorney-General George Brandis had responsibility for judging complaints, given he supported marriage equality.
Earlier senior Labor figure Penny Wong delivered an impassioned speech urging the prime minister to protect children like her own.
‘How do you think it feels for children in same-sex families… to be told politely and courteously “actually you’re not quite normal, your families aren’t as good”?’ asked Senator Wong, who is a parent in a same-sex relationship.
Senator Hanson said students drawing pictures of their parents in class might be told to refer to them by their given names instead
The new laws make it an offence to vilify, intimidate or threaten to cause harm to a person on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status or religious conviction during the survey.
The legislation was introduced on Wednesday morning and passed swiftly after the government and Labor agreed to the temporary safeguards.
Senator Wong lamented that those opposed to gay marriage were using ‘odd, bizarre and unconnected things’ to make their argument.
‘They want to talk about our children, they want to talk about – what’s the phrase – `radical gay sex education’.’
The legislation could not protect the LGBTI community from hurt, she said.