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Citing the need for tolerance, the Social Services Minister has pulled out of the World Congress of Families conference, disappointing organisers.

Senior Liberals from the Abbott and Napthine governments have made a sudden withdrawal from a controversial right-wing conference due to be held this weekend.

Federal Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews and Victorian Attorney-General Robert Clark will no longer attend the World Congress of Families because the new venue is Catch the Fire Ministries in Hallam.

The pair were due to give opening speeches and had claimed their attendance was part of their ministerial duties.

Illustration: Ron Tandberg

There has been public pressure over the pair's attendence. In July The Age revealed prominent Liberals would be attending the forum which included a promoter of Russia's "crusade" against homosexuality and a doctor who spruiks a theory that abortions cause breast cancer.

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Catch the Firepresident Danny Nalliah, and his political branch the Rise Up Australia Party, have courted controversy. Mr Nalliah infamously blamed the Black Saturday bushfires on Victoria's abortion laws. He is also a critic of Islam.

In statements, both Mr Clark and Mr Andrews criticised opponents of the conference asintolerant, and that people had the right to free speech.

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Liberals in sudden backdown from right-wing conference