A number of politicians, public figures, media outlets, businesses and other organisations endorsed voting either in favour or against same-sex marriage during the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey.
Former Federal Politicians
State and Territory Politicians
Religious groups who advocate a "yes" vote include:
Denomination leaders who advocate a "yes" vote include:
Prior to the postal survey, over 500 Australian faith leaders signed a joint letter asking the Australian Government to enact same-sex marriage. Leaders signing were Anglican, Catholic, Uniting Church, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish and Muslim. [664] [665]
Some of the "largest LGBTI demonstrations in Australian history" occurred in the lead-up to the postal survey in various cities. [677] On 27 August, approximately 20,000 people attended a rally in Melbourne calling on the government to legalise same-sex marriage, [678] whilst on 10 September more than 30,000 people gathered in Sydney's CBD supporting a "Yes" vote in the survey. [679]
Federal Politicians
Denominational leaders who advocate a "no" vote include:
Religious leaders who advocate a "no" vote include:
Helen Beatrice Polley is an Australian politician who is an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian Senate, representing the state of Tasmania since 1 July 2005.
Penelope Gail Sharpe is an Australian politician. She has served as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council since 2005, representing the Labor Party. Since March 2023, Sharpe is the Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council and the Vice-President of the Executive Council since Labor's election victory in March 2023, having previously served as leader of the opposition in the Legislative Council between 2021 and 2023.
Louise Clare Pratt is an Australian politician who has been a Senator for Western Australia since 2016, and previously from 2008 to 2014. She is a member of the Labor Party, and served as a member of the Western Australian Legislative Council from 2001 to 2007. She was the youngest woman ever elected to the Legislative Council at the time of her election and the second open lesbian to be elected to an Australian parliament.
Ian Keith Hunter is an Australian politician, representing the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party in the South Australian Legislative Council since the 2006 state election. Hunter served in the Cabinet of South Australia from October 2011 to 2018.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Australia since 9 December 2017. Legislation to allow it, the Marriage Amendment Act 2017, passed the Parliament of Australia on 7 December 2017 and received royal assent from Governor-General Peter Cosgrove the following day. The law came into effect on 9 December, immediately recognising overseas same-sex marriages. The first same-sex wedding under Australian law was held on 15 December 2017. The passage of the law followed a voluntary postal survey of all Australians, in which 61.6% of respondents supported legalisation of same-sex marriage.
Christopher Patrick Hayes is a former Australian Labor Party politician who served as the member of parliament for Werriwa from 2005 to 2010 and then as the member for Fowler from 2010 to 2022, when he retired from politics.
Zdenko Matthew "Zed" Seselja is an Australian politician who was a Senator for the Australian Capital Territory from 2013 to 2022, representing the Liberal Party. He was the Minister for International Development and the Pacific in the Morrison government from December 2020 to May 2022, and previously served as an assistant minister in the Morrison and Turnbull governments since 2016.
Sarah Moya Henderson is an Australian politician, lawyer and former journalist. She has been a Senator for Victoria since September 2019, representing the Liberal Party. She previously held the Division of Corangamite in the House of Representatives from 2013 to 2019.
Michelle Anne Rowland is an Australian politician. She is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and has represented the Division of Greenway in the House of Representatives since 2010. She was a member of the shadow ministry from 2013 to 2022, and was elected President of the New South Wales Labor Party in October 2021. She is now the Minister for Communications in the government of Anthony Albanese following the ALP's victory in the 2022 Australian federal election.
Dean Anthony Smith is an Australian politician and Liberal Party member of the Australian Senate since 2012, representing Western Australia.
Alexander Hart Greenwich is an Australian politician. He is a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, representing the seat of Sydney since the 2012 Sydney by-election. He ran as an independent and was backed by his predecessor, independent Clover Moore. He is also the Co-Chair of Australian Marriage Equality and was one of the key leaders of the successful Yes campaign for the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey in 2017 and abortion legalisation within New South Wales in 2019.
Julia Helen Banks is an Australian lawyer and politician. Elected as the member for Chisholm in the Australian House of Representatives at the 2016 federal election, Banks was the only candidate for the governing Liberal-National Coalition to win a seat held by an opposition party. The previous member, Labor's Anna Burke, had held the seat since 1998 and did not stand for re-election in 2016. Following the Liberal Party leadership spill in August 2018 that saw Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull replaced by Scott Morrison, Banks stated she would not contest the 2019 federal election; and in November 2018 she announced she had quit the party to become an independent MP and sit on the crossbench. She unsuccessfully contested the seat of Flinders at the 2019 election, pitting her against government frontbencher Greg Hunt.
The history of same-sex marriage in Australia includes its express prohibition by the Howard government in 2004 and its eventual legalisation by the Parliament in December 2017. Although a same-sex marriage law was passed by the Australian Capital Territory in 2013, it was struck down by the High Court on the basis of inconsistency with federal law. The Court's decision closed the possibility of concurrent state or territory laws that would allow same-sex marriage where federal law did not. A law legalising same-sex marriage passed the Parliament on 7 December 2017 and received royal assent the following day.
The Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey was a national survey by the Australian Government designed to gauge support for legalising same-sex marriage in Australia. The survey was held via the postal service between 12 September and 7 November 2017. Unlike voting in elections and referendums, which is compulsory in Australia, responding to the survey was voluntary.
William Edward Slade Brockman is an Australian politician who has served as a Senator for Western Australia since 2017, representing the Liberal Party. He was elected President of the Australian Senate in October 2021 following the resignation of Scott Ryan.
The Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017(Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia, which legalises same-sex marriage in Australia by amending the Marriage Act 1961 to allow marriage between two persons of marriageable age, regardless of their gender.
The 2025 Western Australian state election is scheduled to be held on 8 March 2025 to elect members to the Parliament of Western Australia, where all 59 seats in the Legislative Assembly and all 37 seats in the Legislative Council will be up for election.
At the close of nominations a total of 1,624 candidates had stood for the 2022 Australian federal election, of whom 1,203 were House of Representatives candidates and 421 were Senate candidates.