Australia votes in favour of legalising same-sex marriage by 61.6 per cent

Tom Powell|Daniel Orton4 December 2017

Australia has voted in favour of legalising same-sex marriage by 61.6 per cent to 38.4 per cent.

With a turnout of 79.5 per cent, the vote had a bigger turnout than the Brexit referendum and US presidential election.

The non-binding postal survey saw 16 million people registered to vote among Australia's population of 24 million.

As the majority voted in favour, the parliament will vote by December on legislation to lift the ban on same-sex marriages.

The poll saw a higher voter turn-out than the UK's Brexit referendum
Getty Images

Tiernan Brady, director of Australians for Equality, said: “If this were a general election it­ would be the biggest landslide in Australian history."

Australian statistician David Kalisch announced the results in the country's capital Canberra, with 7,817,247 of the ballots cast saying yes, compared to 4,873,987 opposed to the idea.

Across all six states in Australia, the yes vote won - ranging from 64.9 per cent in Victoria to 57.8 per cent in New South Wales - and both the Northern Territory (60.6 per cent) and Australian Capital Territory (74 per cent) voted in favour of the proposal.

Australia's vote follows similar ballots which have been held in three European countries, with Slovenia voting no, Ireland voting yes and a poll in Slovakia failing due to low turnout.

Voters in Ireland said yes to same-sex equality 22 years after homosexuality was decriminalised in the country.

The landmark referendum, passed by 62 per cent of voters, heralded a dramatic shift in social values for a country traditionally held up as a bastion of Catholicism and conservative lifestyles.

Maria Miller, then of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, announced that same-sex marriage ceremonies would begin on March 29 2014.

Chief statistician David Kalisch announced the results
EPA

The Scottish Parliament passed similar legislation in 2014, while same-sex marriage is not performed or recognised in Northern Ireland.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT