Prime Minister Tony Abbott's sister has faced down a heckler who said same-sex marriage would hurt "innocent children".
Christine Forster wants to marry her female partner and has been vocal in her fight for a change to the Marriage Act.
She was a guest on ABC TV's panel show Q&A on Monday and said she "respectfully disagreed" with her brother on the subject of same-sex marriage.
But she was challenged by a studio audience member who disagreed rather less respectfully, interrupting Ms Forster with shouts of: "What about the children, the innocent children?"
"If we bring this bill in, what's going to happen to the young children who are not even going to have a mother or a father? Nature is a mother and a father," the woman said.
Ms Forster, who has four children, said it was more important that children grow up in "loving, supporting families".
"And with all due respect, I don't think that is the exclusive preserve of the traditional family unit," Ms Forster said, to cheers and whistles from audience members.
"I think children can be loved, supported and brought to their fullest potential with the most wonderful self-esteem and self-confidence and ability to make the most of themselves in same-sex families and in single-parent families."
Earlier in the program she dismissed Labor's same-sex marriage bill, saying a bipartisan bill was needed.
"I think (Labor leader Bill) Shorten's bill was a piece of unfortunate politicking with an issue that is too important to be a political football," she said.
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