Ministers offers apology over gay comments

The minister responsible for the agency running the same-sex marriage postal vote has apologised for previously denigrating gay people.

Small Business Minister Michael McCormack wrote a newspaper editorial in 1993 in which he said a week never went by "that homosexuals and their sordid behaviour don't become further entrenched in society".

"Unfortunately gays are here and, if the disease their unnatural acts helped spread doesn't wipe out humanity, they're here to stay," he wrote at the time.

Mr McCormack said in a statement on Friday he had grown and learnt not only to tolerate, but to accept all people regardless of their sexual orientation.

"I apologised wholeheartedly for the comments at the time and many times since, but I am making this statement to unreservedly apologise again today," he said.

"I want all Australians to show each other the respect that they deserve and embrace the things that make us all unique."

Mr McCormack is in charge of the Australian Bureau of Statistics which is conducting the marriage survey.

He said he would respect the final result "and vote accordingly in the parliament".