GetUp!-backed petition seeks to deregister doctor from No-case ad

Supporters of the Yes campaign for same-sex marriage are aiming to deregister a doctor in the first TV ad for the No case.

Pansy Lai, the Sydney GP who appeared in a TV ad against same-sex marriage, near her northern Sydney home yesterday. Picture: Britta Campion

Supporters of the Yes campaign for same-sex marriage have launched a bid to deregister a doctor who appeared in the first television advertisement for the No case in a move that threatens other practitioners.

UPDATE: GetUp! pulls Dr No petition

Since appearing as one of three mothers in the Marriage ­Coalition advertisement, Pansy Lai, a GP in northern Sydney, has been subject to a petition organised by GetUp! seeking her deregistration and has been inundated with phone and social media threats. Dr Lai told The Australian last night she had reported to police one threat that she would be shot “this week”.

She also said her supporters in the Australian-Chinese community were “very alarmed and concerned that someone is trying to destroy my livelihood just ­because I spoke up for family ­values”.

• Kevin Donnelly: Left wants to banish religion from our lives

The petition, backed by GetUp!, calls on the Australian Medical Association, led by ­Michael Gannon, and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Authority to deregister Dr Lai for a breach of medical ethics and the Geneva Conventions through “her participation in the recent No campaign”.

The use of a petition to lodge a complaint with medical authorities for endorsing the No campaign opens the way for any doctor who speaks in support of the No campaign to be subjected to the same threat.

Lev Lafayette, the creator of the GetUp! Australia-hosted petition, defended the decision and said he did not believe it was a form of bullying. “One must ask if it goes the other way as well,” he said. “When misrepresentations are made against same-sex attracted people, have they not been bullied for a long time? Isn’t the denial of marriage equality a form of bullying?” ­Coalition for Marriage spokeswoman Monica Doumit said the threat to Dr Lai’s career would apply to any doctor who spoke against the Yes case.

“In seeking to ruin the career of a doctor who dares to disagree with its agenda, the same-sex marriage lobby has shown, yet again, that it has no interest in freedom of speech,” Ms Doumit said. “The petition against Dr Lai is a threat not only to her, but to any others who might try to voice their opinion. The message is loud and clear: agree on same-sex marriage or else.”

The latest furore over the same-sex marriage debate comes after a Father’s Day community advertisement was banned from free-to-air television because it was deemed “political” and before the High Court’s determination this week on whether the plebiscite on same-sex marriage can be held.

As parliament resumes this week, the ­divisions over the same-sex marriage debate are deepening within the Coalition and a High Court rejection of the postal survey would create an immediate crisis for Malcolm Turnbull.

Dr Lai, not a member of the AMA, which has controversially endorsed the Yes campaign and created splits within its membership, said she was concerned about the prospect of a complaint being put to the AHPRA.

The petition, which received more than 5000 signatures in the first five days, accuses Dr Lai of wilfully spreading “misinformation and non-scientific evidence” in the “harmful and hurtful” No campaign. The petition accuses her of a “violation of her oath” and ­directly causing “harm to the LGBTIQ population”, and seeks her deregistration as a doctor.

Some of the supporters of the petition are suggesting doctors could remain neutral in the debate but anyone supporting the No campaign would be violating their oath and endangering young people.

Dr Lai said she had spoken as a parent and many parents had come to her since last week to express their concerns about whether they could speak against same-sex marriage or the imposition of gender theories at school. Ms Doumit said: “We know that if the law on marriage changes, these activists will feel more empowered to target those who dare disagree.”

Dr Lai was last week accused of supporting gay conversion therapy, a claim she denies.

AMA president Michael Gannon expressed disappointment over the GetUp! facilitated attack, and panned any suggestion that Dr Lai could be disbarred.

“The regulator and the medical board cannot decide to take someone’s livelihood away from them because they have a different point of view to the one they hold,” he said.