Earlier this week, NSW Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells declared that the current move towards marriage equality in Australia will be shut down by the ‘silent majority’.

Since Ireland’s historical referendum and the 2014 Crosby/Textor poll that declared that 74% of Australians support marriage equality, many have touted marriage equality in Australia as inevitable.

Ms Fierravanti-Wells believes that this faith is misguided and is certain a conscience vote on the issue would be a “cop out”.
This is not the first time Senator Fierravanti-Wells has made reference to Australia’s silent majority.

In 2012, the senator declared the failure of Stephen Jones’s (ALP) same-sex marriage bill as a victory for the ‘silent majority’.

“Most Australians would find these concepts repugnant, abhorrent and destructive to our social fabric”, Ms Fierravanti-Wells said.

At this time, Ms Fierravanti-Wells was concerned that allowing same-sex marriage would encourage a movement towards polygamous marriages, as was her fellow Liberal senator Cory Bernardi.

Ms  Fierravanti-Wells told parliament that she doubted that most people wanting marriage equality were religious or intending to have a monogomous relationship.

‘‘I doubt that most people who are pushing these amendments are overly religious or even intend on staying in a monogamous relationship, which begs the question: why do they want to get married?’’ Senator Fierravanti-Wells  said.

Leigh Hill