Friday, November 10, 2017

Australia Same-Sex Marriage Vote: What's Happening?

MetroUK reports:

Australians are now just a few days away from finding out how the nation voted on whether to legalize same-sex marriage.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed a press conference will be held at the ABS House and statistician David Kalisch and his deputy Jonathan Palmer will announce the historical results. 

Australia have simply had to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ as to whether same-sex marriage should be legalised. 

There will also be more statistics available by individual states or territories and there will be data about who participated in the survey by age and gender on the ABS website after the results come out. 

When do the Australia gay marriage vote results come out? 

Australians will learn the results on Wednesday, November 15. 

What happens if the majority result is ‘No’? 

The Australian coalition government says that the topic will not be raised again in this term of parliament or the next if Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull wins the next election. ‘If the people have spoken against it, we won’t be proposing it at the next election I can assure you,’ said Turnbull. 

Meanwhile, Labor has pledged to enact the same-sex marriage laws within 100 days if they were to win government.  

What happens if the majority result is ‘Yes’?

Turnbull has said that if the results are a majority ‘yes’ then same-sex marriage will not be automatically passed through into law. 

Firstly, a private member’s bill amending the Marriage Act will be introduced at the end of the year, and members of Parliament will be given a ‘free vote,’ which means they can vote according to their own personal preference. 

It may also be complicated on how parliamentarians will vote in the House of Representatives and the Senate on this bill.

Some parliamentarians have said they will adhere to the outcome of the national vote, however others have said they’ll vote according to the majority result of their electorate state/region. 

Nonetheless, voting in support of the bill are expected to be in the majority.

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