Australia is the odd one out amongst Anglophone countries (and much of the rest of the West) in still lacking marriage equality in 2017. Our PM Malcolm Turnbull, despite supposedly being pro-LGBT equality, has been terrified into silence by the socially conservative wing of his party, a wing that bears flagrantly unrepresentative power over our democratic process. Poll after poll has shown that a huge majority of Australians want marriage equality now, yet our nominally socially progressive PM has been paralysed for two years, unable to call for a free vote in parliament lest he lose his job.
The latest brainfart from our dear leaders now is a 'postal plebiscite', basically an unrepresentative, non-scientific survey via mail, that will supposedly go out in the next two months to gauge the mood of the nation (everyone knows what the mood of the nation is), and IF it is returned with a 'yes' vote, THEN they'll hold a vote in parliament, at which some of the social conservatives have pledged to vote against marriage equality anyway, no matter the results.
I just want to scream. Like so may commentators over here have pointed out, if you wanted to rig a survey to come back 'no' in a country that is strongly 'yes' for ME, you couldn't do better than what they're planning. A postal survey is much less likely to reach young people, who are more pro-marriage equality as a group but who move around often do to our precarious housing/rental market. The planning is also a real clusterfuck: for unfathomable reasons they've tasked the Australian Bureau of Statistics with holding this survey, a body with no experience holding elections, and there are doubts that the AEC (our actual electoral commission) can legally share the postal details of many voters who are regarded as 'silent electors', not having their details in the electoral register for various reasons, including personal safety. So that's another several hundred thousand people who might not receive their ballots in the first place.
The whole thing is designed to return either an unrepresentative no vote, in which case they'll never allow the parliament to return to the issue again, or piss off so many people the return rate is pathetic, in which case they'll say "well OBVIOUSLY this is not an important issue to the Australian people," and use that as an excuse to never allow the parliament to return to the issue again. In the eventuality that it does actually succeed, half of them have already declared they're not bound by the results anyway.
This is so sad. Holding this thing as a 'survey' means it's not subject to our electoral laws, either, which means there are no limits on how dishonest the advertising can get. Meaning we're about to be bombarded with slime about how gay parents are a menace to children, transgender people are trying to get into your bathroom and rape you, etc. This is all about punishing LGBT people for daring to keep asking for human rights. True equality won't be allowed in this country. Not while the current mob of religious sociopaths and their beached jellyfish of a leader are in power. A whole lot more older LGBT people are going to die without ever being able to marry. That's their design. Kids are going to face the most vicious, unrelenting anti-gay rhetoric this country has seen in decades. That's their design.
The latest brainfart from our dear leaders now is a 'postal plebiscite', basically an unrepresentative, non-scientific survey via mail, that will supposedly go out in the next two months to gauge the mood of the nation (everyone knows what the mood of the nation is), and IF it is returned with a 'yes' vote, THEN they'll hold a vote in parliament, at which some of the social conservatives have pledged to vote against marriage equality anyway, no matter the results.
I just want to scream. Like so may commentators over here have pointed out, if you wanted to rig a survey to come back 'no' in a country that is strongly 'yes' for ME, you couldn't do better than what they're planning. A postal survey is much less likely to reach young people, who are more pro-marriage equality as a group but who move around often do to our precarious housing/rental market. The planning is also a real clusterfuck: for unfathomable reasons they've tasked the Australian Bureau of Statistics with holding this survey, a body with no experience holding elections, and there are doubts that the AEC (our actual electoral commission) can legally share the postal details of many voters who are regarded as 'silent electors', not having their details in the electoral register for various reasons, including personal safety. So that's another several hundred thousand people who might not receive their ballots in the first place.
The whole thing is designed to return either an unrepresentative no vote, in which case they'll never allow the parliament to return to the issue again, or piss off so many people the return rate is pathetic, in which case they'll say "well OBVIOUSLY this is not an important issue to the Australian people," and use that as an excuse to never allow the parliament to return to the issue again. In the eventuality that it does actually succeed, half of them have already declared they're not bound by the results anyway.
This is so sad. Holding this thing as a 'survey' means it's not subject to our electoral laws, either, which means there are no limits on how dishonest the advertising can get. Meaning we're about to be bombarded with slime about how gay parents are a menace to children, transgender people are trying to get into your bathroom and rape you, etc. This is all about punishing LGBT people for daring to keep asking for human rights. True equality won't be allowed in this country. Not while the current mob of religious sociopaths and their beached jellyfish of a leader are in power. A whole lot more older LGBT people are going to die without ever being able to marry. That's their design. Kids are going to face the most vicious, unrelenting anti-gay rhetoric this country has seen in decades. That's their design.
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