Churchgoers have been urged to vote against redefining marriage in Australia, as 16 million citizens are balloted from September to November in the postal survey.
The result will be non-binding, but is likely to produce a change in legislation if the people vote ‘yes’ to the question: ‘Should the law be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry?’
Ahead of the vote, one senator called for Parliament to pass laws protecting those who disagree with same-sex marriage.
Some of the campaigning has been reported to be unpleasant. A Sky News report by conservative commentator Andrew Bolt highlighted the attempt to smear the campaign to vote ‘no’.
A poster containing a very distasteful slur against people who are gay was allegedly seen by someone in Melbourne. The media claimed it had been spotted all over Melbourne, with some claiming that stating a belief against gay marriage empowered people to then perpetrate acts of hatred such as this. The Australian Christian Lobby were asked if they had an ‘unpleasant’ group of people ‘on their side’ during TV interviews, with the assumption that they or those associated with them were connected to this poster.
However, Bolt showed that not only had the poster not been seen by anyone, but it had been sent to the person who ‘informed’ the media about the appearance of the poster, not spotted by him. Its origins were from a fascist group in the USA, and the photograph which had appeared in the media of it being on a bus stop had been mocked up by Channel 10. The bus stop was a ‘stock’ picture from the USA, and no-one could be found who had actually seen the poster anywhere in Melbourne. Channel 10 said they had been ‘forced to source their own’ poster.
