Australia has voted to allow same sex marriage in the country, with over 60% of postal survey submissions for the referendum returning a Yes vote
Australia has voted to allow same sex marriage in the country, with over 60% of postal survey submissions for the referendum returning a Yes vote.
Results were announced on November 15, 2017 by Australia’s chief statistician, David Kalisch, in the capital, Canberra, following a 3 month campaign.
In total, 7,817, 247 voters responded Yes, 61.6% of the votes, whilst 38.4% voted No.
The Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey was mailed out by the government to 16,006,180 eligible voters and 79.5% submitted a response.
All states and territories recorded a majority Yes response, with 133 of the 150 Federal Electoral Divisions recording a majority Yes response.
The biggest Yes vote percentage was in the Australian Capital Territory, with a 74% Yes response.
New South Wales had the closest voting ratio, with 57.8% voting yes, and also had the biggest turnout of submissions, with 2,374,362 voting Yes and 1,736,838 voting No.
According to the Australian Government’s marriage survey results page, women were more likely to vote than men.
Nationally, 81.6% of eligible females and 77.3% of eligible males participated in the survey.
Voters aged 70 to 74 were the most likely age group to respond, with 89.6% participation, and the lowest participation rate of 71.9% was recorded for the 25 to 29 age group.
Senator Dean Smith, who led the motion to change legislation, tweeted after the results were announced that the Senate had agreed to commence debate on the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Bill the following day on November 16, 2017.
The Bill will legislate for marriage equality while protecting religious views about marriage.
He is supported by fellow Senator and Australia’s first openly gay woman in Parliament, Penny Wong, along with co-sponsors Senators Louise Pratt, Janet Rice, Skye Kakoschke-Moore and Derryn Hinch.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said of Australian voters: “[They have] spoken in their millions and they have voted overwhelmingly yes for marriage equality”.
“They voted yes for fairness, yes for commitment, yes for love.
“And now it is up to us here in the parliament of Australia to get on with it, to get on with the job the Australian people asked us to do and get this done.”
