Bid to safeguard firms over same-sex marriage refusal

A law exempting wedding planners and florists from the Sex Discrimination Act will be put to the Senate.

Senator David Leyonhjelm in the Senate chamber. Picture: Kym Smith.

A law exempting wedding planners, florists and other businesses that supply wedding services from the Sex Discrimination Act will be put to the Senate today in a bid to protect people from litigation if they refuse to offer services to gay couples wanting to marry.

Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm will seek to introduce the amendment as a fix to concerns that conservative business owners who expressed objections to providing for same-sex weddings could be breaking the law.

Senator Leyonhjelm has sought support from the Turnbull government on the protections for businesses claiming religious freedoms are not the only safeguards needed. So far the government has expressed little interest in backing the protection amendment.

The push for government support comes as ministers and Liberal MPs yesterday played down a warning by Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher, who said same-sex marriage would ­affect all Australians as well as the operation of schools, hospitals, charities and welfare agencies. Education Minister Simon Birmingham rejected the argument, saying faith-based schools would be “able to operate and preach precisely as they do today”. Victorian Liberal MP Tim Wilson said Archbishop Fisher was promoting an “inaccurate argument” designed to “feed the no campaign”.

Tiernan Brady, the political ­director behind the Yes campaign in the Irish referendum on same-sex marriage, rejected arguments that religious institutions would be threatened by a redefinition of marriage.

“This is about civil marriage here just as it was in Ireland. It is not about religious marriage,” he told Sky News. “There’s an awful lot of red herrings and bogeymen that come out (on) every single day of this campaign, just like Ireland.”

But Senator Leyonhjelm — a supporter of same-sex marriage, having put his own private member’s bill to the Senate last year — said individuals should be protected from prosecution if they objected. He said he was concerned that some undecided voters might vote No in the plebiscite because of concerns that providers of marriage goods and services might be penalised under the Sex Discrimination Act for refusing to deal with same-sex couples.

“There is a risk that conservative business people will be hounded by gay or lesbian zealots under the Sex Discrimination Act if they act in accordance with their conscience,” Senator Leyonhjelm said. “This issue is of concern to many people who are considering how to vote in the forthcoming plebiscite.

“Accordingly, I will seek to amend the Sex Discrimination Act.”

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young yesterday lashed out at Archbishop Fisher, accusing him of blaming gay marriage advocates for undermining the influence of the church. “We heard about the royal commission into child abuse and the decades of cover-up so don’t blame ... same-sex marriage advocates and same-sex couples for ruining religion,” she said.