'Crocodile Dundee' MP leads Australia gay marriage push

MP Warren Entsch is trying to change entrenched opposition to same-sex marriage

Outback conservative Australian MP Warren Entsch agrees he is the least likely person to be leading the country's charge for same sex marriage.

He has worked as a crocodile farmer, "bull catcher" - rounding up cattle - and grazier, and served in the Royal Australian Air Force as an aircraft engine fitter.

Described by some as the Crocodile Dundee of the Australian Parliament, his official biography says that, after his family, his biggest love is his Harley Davidson motorbike.

'Red-neck' territory

The 65-year-old's electorate of Leichhardt in the state of Queensland covers an area in remote north-east Australia that is more than twice the size of the state of Tasmania.

Fellow conservative MP Bob Katter once famously claimed there were no homosexual people in his neighbouring electorate, promising to walk "backwards from Bourke to Brisbane" if any were found living there.

It is classic "red-neck" territory, not known for socially progressive views, but for Mr Entsch, the stereotype gives strength to his argument for same-sex marriage.

"I get calls from families and friends of gay people saying if a 'far north Queensland crocodile-farming, bull-catching Liberal' can stand up for the rights of my gay friend or relative, then I want to come out and do it too," he said, ahead of Tuesday's coalition party room vote on whether MPs should have a free vote on the matter.

Getting married in Australia

• Australia's Marriage Act specifies marriage as a union between a man and a woman

• Opinion polling shows 72% of Australians support gay marriage

• Officially, the ruling Liberal-National coalition does not support gay marriage

• The Opposition Labor party endorses gay marriage, but allows its MPs a conscience vote on legislation

"I'm the least likely advocate and so people can't say it's just some gay person pushing his own agenda," he says.

Mr Entsch on Tuesday gave formal notice that he would table in parliament a cross-party sponsored private member's bill to legalise same-sex marriage.

Both the National Party and the Liberal Party, who make up the government coalition, officially oppose changing the law.

But the campaign for marriage equality has been building in Australia, particularly in the wake of this year's Irish referendum in favour of same-sex marriage.

Canberra airport promoted marriage equality with a giant neon sign

As MPs arrived in the nation's capital this week for a new parliamentary session, Canberra's airport was lit up in rainbow colours, a symbol of gay pride.

Polling shows that more than 70% of Australians are in favour of same-sex marriage but it is opposed by most churches, and MPs on both sides of the house.

Those in the coalition in favour of a change have been pushing for a conscience vote on the issue.

Unlike Ireland, introducing same-sex marriage in Australia requires a vote of Parliament, not a general plebiscite.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott remains resolutely opposed.

Mr Entsch first emerged as a marriage equality advocate after former conservative Prime Minister John Howard amended the Marriage Act in 2004 to specify marriage was between "a man and a woman".

The Queensland MP spoke out in one national newspaper about the courage he had witnessed many decades before from a drinking mate up in "cowboy country" who had undergone a sex change operation and come back to work at the pub as a barmaid.

Mr Abbott denied his MPs a free vote on the issue

Entsch told the BBC he later received an email from her - now a doctor working in the state of Victoria - which thanked him for being willing to risk his political reputation on gay and transgender rights.

"You're the one who has shown true courage by your acceptance, tolerance and support, not only now in the national media but all those years ago in that small but potentially more hostile arena of the Gulf Country," she told him.

But not all agree. Mr Entsch, who chairs the Friends of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Australians parliamentary committee, says he does not cop abuse in his electorate for his stand, but concedes he weathers very "frank" objections.

"Some are quite rude and disgusting, others a bit more rational in their arguments," he says.

Many argue from the perspective of religion or tradition, but he sees opinion on the issue more as generational.

Members of the Christian Federation thanked Mr Abbott with flowers for his support

He counts a retired bishop, who has two gay sons, amongst his supporters and finds that the majority of people aged under 45 he talks to cannot understand why marriage equality is a matter of debate.

Mr Entsch and his Labor co-sponsor of the bill, Terri Butler, still plan to introduce their bill to parliament next week, but they concede it is doomed after Mr Abbott blocked a free vote for Coalition MPs.

The MP from the bush says he will continue to act as a "voice" for the gay community.

"At the end of the day I've got to make a decision not on who is going to give me the most votes, but what I believe in, and I'm happy to be judged on what I believe is right," he says.

Marie McInerney is a Melbourne-based writer.