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Voting In Australia's National Referendum On Marriage Equality Will Be Mandatory

Details about the vote will be released next month once Parliament returns to session.

The Australian government has reportedly decided to hold a compulsory national vote on the issue of marriage equality sometime this February.

Though many have criticized the idea of a federal referendum on same-sex marriage, parliament has decided to press forward with the vote anyway. According to reports, the wording of the question will simply be “Do you approve of a law to permit people of the same sex to marry?”

A recent survey of 5,463 Australian LGBT voters conducted by just.equal, an Australian LGBT-rights community campaign, showed that 85 percent of respondents opposed a national vote on marriage equality.

The most commonly expressed reasons for the opposition included anxiety caused by potential hate campaigns from the religious right and a strong belief that the rights of minority groups should not be put to a country-wide vote.

As far as government response is concerned, the Coalition, the current majority party in Parliament, supports the vote while Labor opposes it. The latter has called the measure "expensive, divisive and unnecessary" as marriage equality now has enough parliamentary support to pass without the need of a national referendum.

Regardless of this rise, Coalition had previously promised the nation a public plebiscite during its election campaign and sees it as the only democratic way to move forward.

The most controversial aspect of the referendum is how ballots will be counted. In an ideal situation, all members of parliament would vote in accordance with the majority opinion of their respective constituency. The fear is that conservative politicians will choose to abstain if their electorate were to vote "yes."

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull spoke to the contentious referendum in an interview in May. While he personally supports marriage equality, he reiterated that it was his party's view to let every Australian have a say in the matter.

“There is no question that it’s not the traditional way of resolving matters like this in Australia,” he told Radio Tasmania. "It was a view taken by the Coalition Party room before I was Prime Minister—nonetheless, it’s a view that we’re committed to and it is thoroughly democratic."

“I can understand it is frustrating for those people who want to get on with it," he continued, "but it will be a thoroughly democratic process.”

Since Turnbull made clear his intentions to hold the vote, a number of prominent Australians have since come out against it, including Victoria's Premier Daniel Andrews.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Andrews wrote: "The plebiscite will hurt people. It will legitimize a hateful debate which will subject LGBTI Australians to publicly funded slurs and denigration, further alienating a proud community who have fought so hard against prejudice for so long."

As of this writing, it's unclear whether or not the "yes" and "no" sides of the issue will get public funding to campaign for their positions.

While the Australian Christian Lobby is hoping to use taxpayer money to support its defense of the Marriage Act, marriage equality advocates have spoken out against funded campaigning.

h/t: Same Same

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