young Senator Boswell's

Queensland Senator Barnaby Joyce yesterday offered this assessment on what gay marriage laws would mean for his own four daughters.

"We know that the best protection for those girls is that they get themselves into a secure relationship with a loving husband and I want that to happen for them," he told a Canberra rally organised by the Australian Christian Lobby.

"I don't want any legislator to take that right away from me."

It is not known if he was trying to say his daughters were all lesbians, or if, instead, their prospective male partners would rather marry men if given the option.