Pornographic cartoons were included in an anonymously produced flyer opposing same sex marriage and the Labor Party, which was distributed to homes in St George before last week’s council elections.
Kogarah MP Chris Minns told State Parliament “some vile moron” put the images of people who were naked or in various stages of undress in letterboxes within easy reach of children.
“A mother in a neighbouring electorate reported to me that her children collected the mail and discovered these vile images,” he said.
Mr Minns’ condemnation of the material was supported by Liberal MP for Oatley, Mark Coure, who said it was “highly offensive”.
Mr Coure said the pamphlet was circulated ahead of the September 9 elections for new Georges River, Bayside, Canterbury Bankstown and Strathfield councils.
He had been advised it had been referred to the NSW Electoral Commission.
Mr Minns said the pamphlet, which was not authorised as election material, was distributed in the midst of community debate about the marriage equality postal vote.
“The pamphlet purports to implore Australians to vote against the Labor Party and against marriage equality,” he said.
“While the pamphlet is meandering and riddled with spelling errors, the suggestion carried within it is that, should marriage equality become law, it will be a threat to the idea of the family and ultimately mean strange things will happen to one's children.”
Mr Minns said the opening paragraph advised not to vote Labor if "you don't want your children to become homosexual."
“It then says not to vote Labor if ‘you do not want children who have 63 genders’,” he said.
”There is also a vulgar reference to a personal activity that is best not openly canvassed in this chamber.
“These are obviously ludicrous and highly laughable assertions.
“Millions of Australians have voted Labor at successive elections and, to the best of my knowledge, none of their children has ever been suddenly afflicted with 63 genders.
“I do not know how one could even have 63 genders.”
Mr Minns said he would normally be inclined to ignore the ridiculous suggestions except “images of cartoon pornography are included on the reverse side of the pamphlet”.
“It is a grotesque irony that the person who sent a piece of literature in the erroneous hope of stopping the sexualisation of young people has distributed these unauthorised pieces of literature to young people,” he said.
“If we were looking for evidence of a group exposing young people to material that they are not ready for, this is exhibit A.
“It is sad to see this letter distributed during the referendum, but we were warned by many activists that a referendum would lead to an ugly culture war directed at same-sex couples.”
Mr Minns said, over the last decade, there had been a sea change in Australia's attitude towards same-sex marriage.
“Millions of people who were softly against the idea of same-sex marriage were waiting for a cogent and persuasive argument against the institution,” he said.
“The reason there has been such a migration of support in favour of same-sex marriage is that this argument never arrived.”
Mr Minns said he would vote for same-sex marriage.