Activists bid to stop gay union survey

CANBERRA: Gay rights advocates went to Australia’s highest court yesterday in a bid to prevent the government from surveying the public on whether gay marriage should be legalised.

The advocates want the Parliament to decide the issue without consultation with the public and are arguing in the High Court that the government does not have the constitutional power to start the postal survey next week.

Opinion polls show that most Australians want same-sex marriage legalised, but many advocates question how representative of Australian attitudes the postal survey would be.

The judges could rule on the validity of the survey as early as today and prevent ballots being posted to voters from yesterday.

One case is brought by independent lawmaker Andrew Wilkie and gay rights campaigners Felicity Marlowe and Shelley Argent.

Ms Argent has described the survey as a “demeaning, hate-filled and pointless vote that will go nowhere and resolve nothing”.

The second case is brought by Janet Rice, a senator in the minor Greens party who is married to a transgender partner, and the Australian Marriage Equality lobby group.

If a majority want marriage equality, Parliament would be allowed to decide the issue by December. But some lawmakers have said their votes in Parliament would not be swayed by public opinion, raising questions about why the public is being surveyed.

Mr Wilkie’s case is that the government’s power to fund the vote without Senate approval can only be used in unforeseen emergencies and not in the ordinary business of government.

Even if the government could fund the vote, Mr Wilkie argues it could not make the Australian Bureau of Statistics carry it out.

While the bureau has the power to obtain statistical data from the Australian population, gathering opinions was different, he argues.

Many yes-vote supporters argue that marriage equality is, as the US Supreme Court found, a human right that should not be subjected to an opinion poll.