Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi says he has been "proved correct" that legalising same-sex marriage would lead to demands to endorse polygamy.
"I stand on the record and say, well I was right," said Senator Bernardi, who was forced to resign last year as Tony Abbott's personal parliamentary secretary following public outrage about his comments.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's sister Christine Forster joined a number of gay and lesbian Australians in saying she felt insulted by Senator Bernardi's comments. 

The Liberal councillor for Sydney tweeted: "Cory Bernardi's comments in today's SMH are an affront to me, my partner and our relationship". Senator Bernardi was also criticised by fellow Liberal MP and frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull, who said the remarks created ‘‘a lot of offence with same sex couples’’.
Senator Bernardi's latest comments come as a Greens bill to recognise internationally sanctioned same-sex marriages is set to be debated in the Senate on Thursday.

The same sex-marriage bill was also debated last night in the Federation Chamber, with Labor MPs Greg Combet, Stephen Smith and Bernie Ripoll all saying they supported legalising gay marriage. As Kevin Rudd did recently, Mr Ripoll said he had changed his mind and would now support the bill.Amid these developments, Senator Bernardi told Fairfax Media that some sections of society were now moving in the "abhorrent and disgusting" direction he had predicted.
"There is actually now a petition been put together for the House of Representatives by Green activists to legally recognise multi-member unions," Senator Bernardi said.
He was referring to a recent petition by the Polyamory Action Lobby in which the group said: "We demand nothing less than the full recognition of polyamorous families".
"Now I said that would happen," Senator Bernardi said. "It's happening.''

"I think there should be alarm . . . If you're going to re-define a word to satisfy demands of a minority then you're going to face continuing demands in that space.''Senator Bernardi also stood by his controversial comments last year that the "next step" after recognising same-sex marriage was to support "creepy people" who chose to have sex with animals.

"Bestiality, of course it was an extreme example, but once again it's linked to the radical agenda of the Greens Party," he said.
Fairfax Media has contacted the office of the Opposition Leader seeking comment.
In the Coalition's joint party meeting on Tuesday, Mr Abbott made no mention of Senator Bernardi's comments but he stressed the need for the Coalition to maintain discipline across every piece of communication between now and the election.

Mr Turnbull told Sky News none of the countries around the world that had legalised same sex marriage had gone on to legalise polygamy.
‘‘And the remarks about bestiality are obviously very extreme and extremely offensive and I dissociate myself from them completely,’’ he added.
Mr Turnbull thought it ‘‘quite likely’’ that Mr Abbott would allow the Coalition a conscience vote on legalising same sex marriage in the next Parliament.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/bernardi-i-was-right-on-gay-marriage-and-polygamy-20130618-2offe.html#ixzz2WYQMbwM6

The astounding attacks by the Coalition and their supporters on our female prime minister signals our politics is returning to the way of the jungle, writes Rodney E. Lever.

AUSTRALIA IS GOING through an era of political turmoil in 2013, unlike anything before.

Even the Whitlam dismissal – unfair but quickly resolved without civil war – has been overshadowed by the astounding internal parliamentary attacks on our prime minister throughout her term.

The attacks on the women serving in the Australian Labor Party are extraordinary in a country which preceded the entire world in giving women the right to vote*. It’s not as if there are many more women in the Government than there are in the Opposition.

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/australias-cave-man-conservatives/

Meanwhile the press now concentrates on our Prime Minister new hairdo, bad polls and other facetious attacks including:

Perhaps the definitive word should go to Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos, who issued a press release no less accusing Labor backbencher Deb O'Neill of strongly backing Ms Gillard.