Senator Matt Canavan says using suicide statistics during the postal survey is “blackmail”
Senator Matt Canavan has derided advocates using statistics around mental health and suicide in the LGBTI community during the marriage debate, calling the tactic “blackmail”.
During last night’s Q&A, a young gay man in the audience brought up Canavan’s previous comments criticising LGBTI people as “delicate little flowers” who need to “grow a spine”, before asking the Senator if he believes the role of leadership is to support society’s most vulnerable.
“I’m very worried about the fact that we’re struggling in modern democracy to respect other people’s opinions,” Canavan replied.
“There’s certainly a push from some calling those who support traditional marriage bigots.
“I think we should be able to have a respectful debate on these issues.”
He was then asked by fellow panelist and Greens leader Richard Di Natale whether he had tried to silence bank Westpac after it sent an email to staff urging them to vote Yes.
The email had included estimates on suicide rates in Australia and suggested a Yes vote would reduce the number of LGBTI people taking their own life.
“That particular note was attempted blackmail,” Canavan responded.
“They accused people who support traditional marriage of causing 3,000 suicides each year, when in fact there was only 2,800.
“I think using the always tragic circumstances of individuals to win a political debate is blackmail.”
Di Natale responded by claiming that was the whole point.
“The whole point is that people are actually heard by a society that says they’re not normal, they’re not welcome,” he said.
“As a doctor who saw young people struggling with their sexuality, this debate hurts people, it harms them.
“The reason we have higher rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide among young people who are gay, lesbian, bi, trans, and intersex is because of a debate in society that says you’re not like us, you’re different, you’re abnormal.”
It is not blackmail if it’s a fact. Canavan is a bigot pure and simple. No one has a right to deny people of a basic human right because they don’t like their ‘lifestyle.’ I just hope hat this finally finishes this hateful government.
It is not blackmail if it’s a fact. Canavan is a bigot pure and simple. No one has a right to deny people of a basic human right because they don;t like their ‘lifestyle.’ I just hope hat this finally finishes this hateful government.
These people who think that we need to respect the opinions of others. I respect your right to hold an opinion, but I don’t have to respect your opinion at all. If you think that same-sex couples shouldn’t be allowed to marry, I think that’s an absolute shit opinion! I can respect you as a person, just as LGBT people should be respected. We aren’t opinions; our relationships and lives aren’t opinions. Being called a bigot isn’t in the same kettle of fish as being bashed for being “a dirty faggot”. This bloke’s a tool.
Bigot is not a word with a history of being used as an insult. If you support the definition of marriage as it stands you promote exclusion , in the same manner of segregation and apartheid. All three are bigoted policies and laws. matt canavan (no respect, no capitals) doesn’t seem to understand the links between bigotry and suicide and to deride that awful reality is an indication of his immorality.
Good point Tom. The Liberal Party’s cop-out approach to marriage equality has certainly left me feeling decidedly more bigoted against folks with certain political and religious views in our society. I’m quite happy to admit to being a bigot, I’m buggered if I can get my head around the idiots out there saying “I oppose marriage equality because I want gay people to have less civil rights than the rest of us but I’m not homophobic”. They’re just lying.
This is the clown who claims he never knew his mother took out foreign citizenship on his behalf. In other words, he expects us all to believe that his mother initiated a process to obtain citizenship of another country on his behalf and never said a word to him about it. What’s more, he conveniently wasn’t told about the voting forms that were sent to him by the Italian Government either.
The man is either mind blowingly stupid, or a bare faced liar. Either way, not a fit and proper person to be sitting in our national parliament.
And as to the demand for a “respectful debate”: Perhaps the ‘Yes’ campaign supporter in Brisbane who had a rock thrown through her window would have appreciated that too. And perhaps the owner of the dog who was physically attacked in a Melbourne Park while wearing an ‘equality’ bandana would have appreciated a “respectful debate”. As would the people on the Sydney train who were confronted with foul anti-gay graffiti accompanied by swastikas.
Yes, Senator Canavan, some “respectful debate” would have been nice. And perhaps if you could have shown some personal integrity, that would have been nice too. You are an absolute disgrace and I hope you are relieved of your (thoroughly undeserved) position in our national parliament very soon.
Matt Canavan has repeatedly expressed the fairly offensive opinion that marriages which don’t produce kids in the biologically traditional manner are inferior. This is not just digging at same sex couples, it’s digging at a lot of existing straight marriages too.
And yet Matt Canavan remains the only member of the current Parliament ever to hold a press conference with the express purpose of blaming his (traditional marriage) mother for his being in breach of the Australian constitution because she had signed him up for Italian citizenship, apparently fraudulently if the claims of the Italian government are to be believed. He went on to deny every seeing mail sent to him at his mother’s address, a prima facie accusation of theft.
Canavan says traditional relationships are superior, yet no politician in Australian history has ever held a press conference to blame their gay parent or even a step-parent for putting them in breach of the constitution.
Canavan is a disgrace. He is wrong, he is on the wrong side of history, and every time he opens his mouth he just proves it further. He cares not a jot even for his own family, let alone yours, and he keeps on proving it.