{"id":111159,"date":"2017-08-10T04:48:06","date_gmt":"2017-08-10T08:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=111159"},"modified":"2025-01-07T15:12:57","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T20:12:57","slug":"challenge-filed-in-court-to-australian-gay-marriage-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/08\/10\/challenge-filed-in-court-to-australian-gay-marriage-ballot\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenge filed in court to Australian gay marriage ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"(Shutterstock<\/a>
If most Australians say “no,” the opinion on gay marriage next month, while a retired judge said he would boycott the survey as unacceptable. (Shutterstock photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CANBERRA, Australia — Gay-rights advocates filed a court challenge Thursday to the government’s unusual plan to canvass Australians’ opinion on gay marriage next month, while a retired judge said he would boycott the survey as unacceptable.<\/p>\n

The mail ballot is not binding, but the conservative government won’t legislate the issue without it.<\/p>\n

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If most Australians say \u201cno,\u201d the government won’t allow Parliament to consider lifting the nation’s ban on same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for independent lawmaker Andrew Wilkie and marriage equality advocates Shelley Argent and Felicity Marlowe, applied to the High Court for an injunction that would prevent the so-called postal plebiscite from going ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be arguing that by going ahead without the authorization of Parliament, the government is acting beyond its power,\u201d lawyer Jonathon Hunyor said.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the government had legal advice that the postal ballot would withstand a court challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI encourage every Australian to exercise their right to vote on this matter. It’s an important question,\u201d Turnbull said.<\/p>\n

Gay-rights advocates and many lawmakers want Parliament to legislate marriage equality now without an opinion poll, which they see as an unjustifiable hurdle to reform.<\/p>\n

Retired High Court judge Michael Kirby, a gay man who supports marriage equality, dismissed the ballot as \u201cirregular and unscientific polling.<\/p>\n

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\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s just something we’ve never done in our constitutional arrangements of Australia, and it really is unacceptable,\u201d Kirby told Australian Broadcasting Corp.<\/p>\n

Kirby would not comment on the legality of the government proceeding with the 122 million Australian dollar ($96 million) ballot without Parliament’s approval, but said: \u201cI’m not going to take any part in it whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plebiscites in Australia are referendums that don’t deal with questions that change the constitution. Voting at referendums is compulsory to ensure a high voter turnout and that the legally-binding result reflects the wishes of a majority of Australians.<\/p>\n

The government opted for Australia’s first-ever voluntary postal plebiscite after the Senate twice rejected AU$135 million funding for a conventional plebiscite, in which votes are cast in ballot boxes.<\/p>\n

Pollster Martin O’Shannessy said a market researcher would be able to provide a more accurate picture of Australians’ attitudes toward gay marriage through telephone polling for less than $AU1.2 million.<\/p>\n

The accuracy of the postal ballot could be damaged by low voter response and responses coming primarily from voters with strong views on both sides of the argument, said O’Shannessy, a partner at Sydney market researcher Omnipoll.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say that the process is open to significantly more risk than an opinion survey,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Successive opinion polls show most Australians support gay marriage. But national referendums in Australia rarely change the status quo.<\/p>\n

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Gay-rights advocates fear that on an issue that doesn’t directly affect most Australians, a majority might be persuaded to opt against change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CANBERRA, Australia — Gay-rights advocates filed a court challenge Thursday to the government’s unusual plan to canvass Australians’ opinion on …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":38886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[268,271,8156],"class_list":["post-111159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","tag-australia","tag-gay-rights","tag-same-sex-marriage","mauthors-rod-mcguirk","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111159"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280233,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111159\/revisions\/280233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}