Can you hear that collective sigh of relief? After two months of hard campaigning with some decidedly disrespectful debate and harassment aimed at the LGBTIQ communtity , love has finally prevailed. Australians have officially voted a big fat resounding YES in favour of same-sex marriage!
And fair dinkum… not only did we prove that we love equality – we also proved that we love a good vote! Over 79.5 per cent of eligible voters returned their non-compulsory, non-binding ballot papers. For scale, only 58 per cent of Americans bothered to vote for this term’s president.
Every single state and territory recorded a yes.
Does this mean gay marriage is legal in Australia?
Not quite. Now it goes back to the politicians to sort things out, with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull previously saying he expects his government “will facilitate a private member’s Bill to make same-sex marriage legal before the end of the year”.
Remember when Germany had a parliamentary vote on marriage equality and within a week it was law? German efficiency at its finest…
Considering we just spent $122 million on this “democratic” vote, it would be incredibly slack of the pollies to ignore the result and vote no anyway, but it’s well within their rights, and seven MPs have already said there’s no chance of them voting yes.
The ABC checked in with MPs before the results were published and found 72 per cent of the Lower House and 69 per cent of the Upper House will definitely vote yes in accordance with Australia’s wants.
Here is a list of **politicians who supported and opposed same sex marriage*.
Malcolm Turnbull once said Australia is the “odd one out” among nations including the United Kingdom, the United States, New Zealand, the majority of Europe and Canada. 22 countries around the world have same-sex marriage. Taiwan will become the first country in Asia to legalise it.
Can I see how others voted?
The Australian Bureau of Statistics will publish a breakdown of the votes, including:
• A count of responses (Yes, No and Response Not Clear) by Federal Electoral Division, State/Territory and National;
• A count of eligible Australians who have not participated;
• A participation rate by age and gender for each FED, State/Territory and National.
The results won’t be broken down so far as age and gender due to that old anonymous chestnut.
But, for now, let’s FINALLY celebrate our arrival into the 21st century. Continue to spread the love, hug everyone you know and you might want to buy yourself a hat – you’re going to need it!
