Australian prime minister Julia Gillard reveals in a new interview that her opposition to marriage equality is based in her old-fashioned upbringing in a "quite conservative family."
Gillard expressed her views in an interview with Sky News's Australian Agenda. Where the push for marriage equality in her country is concerned, she said that she is a "cultural traditionalist" who finds herself "on the conservative side in this question."
"Declaring there were 'some important things from our past that need to continue to be part of our present and part of our future,' Ms Gillard said her view was that the Marriage Act -- and marriage being between a man and woman -- 'has a special status,'" reports The Australian.
Gillard, who is an atheist, also said it was important for people to recognize the important role that Bible stories continue to play in the culture.
"It's impossible to understand Western literature without having that key of understanding the Bible stories and how Western literature builds on them and reflects them and deconstructs them and brings them back together," said Gillard.
Watch the interview. The discussion about marriage equality begins around 25:19.
