Marriage: Love and Law exhibition catalogue - Flipbook - Page 127
100
Support and
opposition
of same-sex
marriage
90
80
Support
Percentage of those polled
70
60
50
40
Oppose
30
20
Undecided
10
0
June
2004
Newspoll
June
2007
Galaxy
June
2009
Galaxy
October
2010
Galaxy
August
2011
Galaxy
December
2011
Nielsen
February
2012
Galaxy
August
2013
Nielsen
June
2014
Crosby
Textor
Marriage law reform
to enable all Australians—
regardless of their sex or
gender—to legally marry
gained wider public support
throughout the 2010s.
Source: Crosby Textor, Same-Sex Marriage Research, 2014
The Howard-led Coalition, which held Government from March 1996
to December 2007, opposed same-sex marriage. It worked to amend the
Marriage Act 1961 and to enshrine a definition of marriage in the legislation.
In 2004, the Marriage Amendment Act 2004 was introduced, defining marriage
as ‘the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily
entered into for life’.
Between 2004 and 2016, a total of 23 bills dealing with marriage equality
or the recognition of overseas same-sex marriages came before the Australian
Parliament. All were defeated at the second reading stage. In 2016, the LiberalCoalition Government led by Malcolm Turnbull directed the Australian Bureau
of Statistics (ABS) to undertake a survey to gauge the population’s views
on whether the law should be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry.
This process was not without controversy, as it was only undertaken after
attempts to establish a plebiscite on the issue had failed. The Australian
Marriage Law Postal survey, which was distributed to all Australians on the
electoral roll in late-2017, asked the question: ‘Should the law be changed
to allow same-sex couples to marry?’
92 Australian Bureau
of Statistics
Should the law be changed
to allow same-sex couples
to marry?
Digital image
2017
Australian Bureau of Statistics,
1800.0 – Australian Marriage Law
Postal Survey, 2017
On 15 November 2017, the ABS announced the results of the voluntary survey:
12.5 million people or 79.5 per cent of Australians had expressed a view on the
question. The majority indicated that the law should be changed to allow
same-sex couples to marry.
Overleaf
93 Ann-Marie Calilhanna
Love wins for equality!
Digital photograph
2017
Star Observer
92
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