Writer’s ‘joke’ sex tweet draws Coalition MPs’ fire

Coalition MPs have attacked writer Benjamin Law over his comments about “anti-gay MPs”.

Columnist Benjamin Law has drawn fire from conservative MPs

Coalition MPs have attacked Benjamin Law, the author of the latest Quarterly Essay, after he defended the “good humour” of a controversial tweet in which he jokes about “hate f..king” the homophobia out of “anti-gay MPs”.

Law, an author and Fairfax columnist, stood by the tweet on Monday as conservative MPs targeted his essay, which called for a national rollout of the Safe Schools program — a scheme promoted as anti-bullying and that ­familiarises students with transgender concepts.

Speaking on ABC TV, Law said: “I am not going to retract anything I say. It is in good humour.”

He also said it was a “serious thing” to have a debate about the Safe Schools program because LGBTIQ people had the “highest rates of suicide in Australia of any demographic in the country”.

But Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar, who holds the outer Melbourne seat of Deakin, issued a statement saying Safe Schools was “an extreme and highly politicised program” that went “far beyond an anti-bullying program”.

“The Andrews Labor government move to make the Safe Schools Coalition program compulsory in all Victorian schools diminishes a parent’s right to guide and educate their children on values and moral code,” Mr Sukkar said.

“The Victorian Liberal Party has committed to scrapping the Safe Schools program if elected, in favour of a comprehensive anti-bullying program.”

Victorian Nationals MP Andrew Broad told The Australian Law’s tweet undermined the Yes campaign for same-sex marriage.

“Everyone has a right to say anything and they often do by Twitter,” he said. “But the more people talk things that are indecent, the more it undermines their argument. Aussies are pretty fair-minded and have got pretty high bulldust radars.”

On August 30, Law tweeted to his more than 77,000 followers: “Sometimes find myself wondering if I’d hate-f..k all the anti-gay MPs in parliament if it meant they got the homophobia out of their system.”

One of his followers responded by saying “start with Hastie”, a reference to West Australian Liberal MP and former SAS captain ­Andrew Hastie who is a fierce ­defender of traditional marriage.

Mr Hastie told The Australian: “Noting my skills acquired in my previous ­career, I’d like to see him try.”

Tasmanian Liberal senator Eric Abetz on Monday said Law’s comment amounted to a joke “about rape”, and “having sex with right-wing members of parliament” and was not acceptable.

Law has strongly rejected suggestions his tweet in any way referenced or made light of rape, and told his Twitter followers on Monday that rape was “non-consensual and nothing to be joked about”.

“Hate f..king is a Gen Y term: consensual sex with someone disagreeable,” he said.

On September 7 Law tweeted a link to an online Elite Daily article that described the act as “more selfish” and noted there was “no foreplay because you don’t really care to be tender or selfless”.

“It’s usually kinkier than normal sex — choking, rough-housing and what-have-you are perfectly acceptable during a hate-f..k,” the article said.