Newman ‘like Big Brother’: Farmer Dave

A former Big Brother contestant says Queensland’s premier is acting like the reality show’s namesake by moving to outlaw gay surrogacy and water down same-sex civil unions.

Queensland sheep farmer David Graham says it was a kick in the guts when the Liberal National Party (LNP) government announced its intention to ban gay couples, singles and all new de facto couples from having children through altruistic surrogacy.

The 33-year-old, who is known as “Farmer Dave”, was speaking in Brisbane on Sunday at the launch of a lobby group to campaign for gay and lesbian rights.

Graham, who came out during the 2006 Big Brother series, says he’s been a member of the National Party since he was a 16-year-old.

He was also critical of moves to rename civil unions “registered relationships”, and says he can’t comprehend why a party that believes in the family unit wants to interfere in the relationships of gay Queenslanders.

“It is a bit like Big Brother,” he told reporters at the launch.

“It’s a case of them coming down and saying, `this is how things are going to be’, but not for any reason that’s a right reason.”

The former National Party member said he was initially elated when Campbell Newman was elected premier.

“I thought this is the best thing for Queensland,” he said.

“And then it was a kick in the guts when suddenly these social engineering policies started being rolled out.

“We wanted change but we didn’t want this change.”

Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk was also at the launch of Queenslanders for Equality.

She said the state government had created a “cloud of uncertainty” over its policies on job cuts, social housing and now surrogacy.

Campaign leader psychologist Paul Martin said the lobby group aimed to stop the removal of lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual Queenslanders’ rights.

Mr Martin handed Ms Palaszczuk an e-petition with close to 5000 signatures protesting against the removal of gays and lesbians from altruistic surrogacy legislation.

Ms Palaszczuk promised to table it in parliament.

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