On the day parliament ended same-sex discrimination in commonwealth laws the Rudd government was required to defend its record on gay rights.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon had to explain how she appointed two men's health ambassadors whose names appeared on a paper expressing homophobic views, including that gay men were more likely than heterosexual men to molest children.
She sacked one of them, Warwick Marsh from the Fatherhood Foundation, after he refused to repudiate the paper. The other, Barry Williams from Lone Fathers Association, won a reprieve after he disassociated himself from the "offensive" views.
Ms Roxon said the incident was unlikely to damage the government's standing with the gay community.
"These are not my views and are not the government's views," she told reporters.
"I am very proud of the record that the government has and ... I hope that the gay community will see this for the mistake it was."
Openly gay senator Bob Brown accused Ms Roxon of having form when it came to discriminating against gays.
"Nicola was the Labor shadow minister who told a cheering throng ... in 2004 that Labor would lead the charge to ban gay marriage and prodded the Howard government into legislating to discriminate against same-sex couples," he told reporters.
The minister needed to look at her own due diligence regarding the appointments and "hate-mongering".
"It is very troubling that amongst the millions of Australians who were available to give advice to the minister on this matter ... we're left with this furore."
Ms Roxon accepted full responsibility for the failure to check Mr Marsh's background, saying it was a mistake.
"Certainly I will improve my processes in the future."
She received support from Labor colleague Penny Wong, another openly gay senator.
"(She) has acted decisively and swiftly and I support her response," Senator Wong said.
But Independent South Australian senator Nick Xenophon said both Mr Marsh and Mr Williams should have been sacked.
"Anyone that authored a document like that, I don't think should be a men's health ambassador," he told reporters.
Liberal frontbencher Tony Abbott said the views expressed by some of the men's health ambassadors were certainly pretty odd.
"I wouldn't have any truck with them," he said.
Parliament on Thursday voted to end discrimination against same-sex couples in commonwealth laws.