Nats senator accuses SBS of bias

A Nationals senator has accused public broadcaster SBS of being biased against traditional marriage.

Matthew Canavan took issue with the broadcaster's decision not to run an Australian Marriage Forum advertisement promoting traditional marriage during the airing of this year's Sydney gay and lesbian Mardi Gras parade.

SBS defended the decision, telling a Senate committee it would have been happy to air the ad in other time slots because its policy was not to run ads that directly contradicted a program's content.