Federal Opposition leader Tony Abbott has defended comments he made about homosexuality on 60 Minutes, saying gays and lesbians "challenge" the order of things.
Mr Abbott said he would "probably feel a bit threatened ... as most people do" when asked how he felt about homosexuality.
Last night he told ABC's Lateline program that the comment was a "spontaneous answer".
"The truth is I try to take people as I find them," Mr Abbott said.
"I've always tried to be that way and I hope as I get older I become better at it."
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When asked to clarify what he meant by "threatened", Mr Abbott would not say if he felt threatened that men might be attracted to him, or if he felt that traditional families were threatened.
"There is no doubt that it challenges, if you like, orthodox notions of the right order of things," he said.
"But as I also said on [60 Minutes], it happens, it's a fact of life and we have to treat people as we find them."
Mr Abbott has previously come under fire for his conservative views on marriage, saying women should treat virginity as "a gift".
