It’s important in the fury over Cory Bernardi somehow relating bestiality to gay marriage in Parliament last night to put his comments in context. Here’s what he said:

“If we are prepared to redefine marriage so that it suits the latest criterion that two people who love each other should be able to get married irrespective of their gender and/or if they are in a s-xual relationship, then what is the next step? The next step, quite frankly, is having three people or four people that love each other being able to enter into a permanent union endorsed by society — or any other type of relationship. For those who say that I am being alarmist in this, there is the polyamory community who were very disappointed when the Greens had to distance themselves from their support for numerous people getting together and saying they want to enter into a permanent union …

“There are even some creepy people out there — and I say ‘creepy’ deliberately — who are unfortunately afforded a great deal more respect than I believe they deserve. These creepy people say it is OK to have consensual s-xual relations between humans and animals. Will that be a future step? In the future will we say, ‘These two creatures love each other and maybe they should be able to be joined in a union’.”

Actually, nope, the context doesn’t help after all.

Bernardi resigned as Tony Abbott’s parliamentary secretary as Crikey hit deadline with a slap from the boss along the way. He should keep walking — out of public life altogether.