In a historic result, an overwhelming majority of Australians have voted ‘Yes’ in same sex marriage survey. The Australian Bureau of Statistics announced that 61.6 per cent of almost 13 million respondents backed the proposal in the $122m voluntary survey.
All states and territories recorded a majority Yes response. 133 of the 150 Federal Electoral Divisions recorded a majority Yes response, and 17 of the 150 Federal Electoral Divisions recorded a majority No response.
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics
The 'yes' vote was met with scenes of joy, tears and marriage proposals at the gathering of more than 1000 people at the steps of the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne.
On this occasion, SBS Punjabi caught up with some members of the Indian community to get their comments on the result.
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics
Gurpal Singh, a well-known lawyer in Melbourne and a supporter of the ‘no’ campaign said that even though his personal opinion still remains the same, yet, he admits that it is a win for the democratic process of the country.
“This is a win for the democratic process. Whenever there is a controversial issue in the state or society, everyone’s opinion is taken and the decision of the majority is applicable,” he said.
Singh said he accepts this decision as the decision of the majority but also pointed out that there are people who voted ‘No’ in the survey.
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics
He praised the democratic procedure of the country saying that people were co-operative in and participated in the process. He said that the LGBT community is not a majority community in the country and that straight people have come in support of them and voted ‘Yes’ which should be appreciated.
He expressed his concerns regarding repercussions of the result and feared that some clashes could happen between the yes and no campaigners but sternly suggested that violence was not the way to resolve anything.
While talking about the next steps after the result, he suggested that this could result in increased migration to Australia as people from LGBT community from various countries may want to come to Australia once the law gets passed to settle here. This, however, is not a bad thing according to him as it can give a boost to Australian economy.
Jasvinder Sidhu is another well-known member of the Indian community from Melbourne who told SBS Punjabi that he was hopeful of a positive result in the survey. He feels that a progressive society has to move and change with time.
“Whatever the progressive intellectuals of the society were thinking, that’s come true”, he said.
According to him, no one should have the right to interfere in someone else’s private life as far as a progressive society is concerned.
“We need to change with the modern world and accept modern thought”.
However, he said that accepting modern thought does not mean one has to abandon his culture. But, if the cultural beliefs start causing problems for others, we need to re think and regroup our thoughts.
Both sides, however, seemed to agree on one thing – that the result should be made into a law without hurdles in parliament.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull held a press conference ten minutes after the result was announced, to promise the nation that he will now push to make this result a law before Christmas.
Both sides of the campaign tend to believe that Prime Minister should push to pass the law now or risk a political death.
A bill to legalise same-sex marriage has already been introduced in the Senate. The Senate will on Thursday debate the wording of a bill to change the Marriage Act.
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