By Paul Dobbyn
AUSTRALIAN Marriage Forum president Dr David van Gend’s campaign to cut through “the monolithic media message of so-called marriage equality and adults’ rights” has hit a wall.
On March 29, Channel Nine, after agreeing to screen during the 6pm news a second AMF advertisement pitched around children’s rights in such relationships, pulled the ad at the last minute.
Dr van Gend said the second ad was timed around the second anniversary of the National Apology for Forced Adoption.
“It was a noble moment in 2013 when our then Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, spoke to the nation about ‘the most primal and sacred bond there is: the bond between a mother and her baby’,” the Toowoomba-based GP said.
“How hypocritical, then, that on Thursday, March 26, a new policy to break that primal bond was scheduled to come before the Senate.
“It was a policy that would institute marriage without a woman, and so create families without a mother.”
Queensland Bioethics Centre director Dr Ray Campbell was surprised to hear the TV station had pulled the ad at the last minute, “given it had agreed to run it”.
He also agreed same-sex marriage was a “hot button” issue with “many supporters”, but said this supposed support might reflect different understandings of marriage within the community.
The AMF’s first 30-second TV ad, pitched around children’s rights in same-sex relationships, provided cut-through when it screened on commercial television the same day as Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade.
An online YouTube version of the ad has since attracted more than 600,000 views.
“The first AMF ad pointed out laws allowing same-sex marriage would deny children even the possibility of relationship with his or her biological mother … or father,” Dr van Gend said.
Channel Nine’s decision last Sunday night to pull the latest AMF ad without explanation was similar to an SBS decision not to run the ad during its live coverage of the Gay Mardi Gras Parade, he said. “Is this is what our ‘free society’ is coming to?” he said.
“An intelligent contribution to a vital public debate, fully approved by the CAD regulator and duly contracted by the TV station, has been suddenly pulled without prior notification.”
The first ad in the AMF campaign hit shortly before Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm planned to start parliamentary debate on his “freedom to marry” bill.
The Australian Christian Lobby organised a campaign which saw 20,000 Australians send more than two million emails to Liberal Party members, urging against a conscience vote.
The matter did not come up for discussion.
Dr Campbell said the media “will generally continue to fail to present the issue as a debate about the nature of marriage, but simply about ‘equality’, which really begs the question”.
“But it is not simply a question of ‘same-sex marriage’,” he said.
“The discussion needs to look beyond the question of same-sex unions.”
Noting that “heterosexuals have done a pretty good job of undermining and diminishing the institution of marriage”, Dr Campbell said, “as a society, we need to deepen our appreciation of what marriage is”.
“This year’s General Synod on the Family called by Pope Francis is seeking to do this,” he said.
“The synod is trying to recapture the essence of what it means to be married and in family while at the same time ministering to those in difficult situations.
“Marriage is not just between individuals – it’s an institution within society which needs the support of society to flourish.
“Simply put, in the eyes of the Church, marriage is a life-long union and commitment between a man and a woman, exclusive of all others, which is ordered to the well-being of the spouses and to the procreation and upbringing of children.”
Dr van Gend said AMF’s advertising agent had asked a Channel 9 representative why the commercial was not aired, despite receiving written confirmation that the booking was proceeding as planned.
“Our agents asked for a written explanation but have not received one to date,” he said.
“However, I understand the ad did screen during Sunday night’s news on Hobart and Darwin’s WIN TV which is affiliated with Channel 9. The decision not to screen the ad was a Channel 9 decision which affected other capitals.” Channel Nine did not comment by publication deadlines.
