Australian Postal Survey on Marriage Law

“Presumably two songs should be played, one for gay marriage and one against gay marriage,’’ Mr Dutton said.

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Cory Bernardi to perform a 6 minute slam poem.

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&

In 1989, the grand final entertainment was apparently some massive spectacular about the environment. Slightly ironic too due to the Winfield sponsorships at the the time too - not only are discarded cigarettes probably the most littered thing on the planet, they harm human health as well (which is one of the main ideas behind concern over the environment, right?).

I can’t find any actual footage of the performances, but there’s a clip here which kind of shows the theme off and a couple of newspaper clippings at the time.

I wonder what Tony Abbott et al. thought about it at the time.

And this Macklemore thing controversy is over just one song. In 1989, the entire show was themed around this environmental stuff, which I’d imagine was probably quite contentious back then.

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Excellent find.

Sadly it isn’t new for conservatives/right wing politicians to hold back progress, claim they support freedom of speech, but get upset when they don’t like people speaking for progress/campaigning to do the right thing.
For example there was right-wing outrage at Midnight Oil’s T shirts at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

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Logic :thinking:

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I wonder if the recent opinion polls take account of these groups (were they sampled?), at the right proportions.

This morning on ABC’s Insiders it was suggested that it’s getting close to the point where the No campaign can’t win:
If the polling is fairly accurate about how people have responded to the survey, with the ABS’ numbers on how many have responded, then - as mentioned in the Insiders panel discussion - hopefully the campaigns will quieten down soon.

PS: Oh and this on the High Court’s ruling explaining why they rejected the legal challenges to the postal survey:

So much for the court looking at parliament’s intent when the relevant laws were passed.

PPS: And 3rd…

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John Howard’s full page ad.

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I think sporting clubs, sporting organisations should really stay out of this debate. Why can’t sporting events have meaning for sporting entertainment and just leave the political bullshit for outside AFL, NRL and god knows what other sports that this campaign has infiltrated too.

Organisations should just stay out of it and not commit to anything that could realistic do more damage to their reputation, it’s fine if employees want to have their own beliefs and stuff but fuck… putting a whole organisation into the debate and making a stand on the issue on either side, where a majority of their employees may not even agree!

Just leave the sport for exactly that - -sports. Fuck the political bullshit that this plebiscite has caused.

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Well said. I want to vote “yes” but some of the issues outlined in the former Prime Minister’s statement gives me pause to consider what I am actually saying “yes” to. I don’t trust these politicians not to fuck this up and drag us further toward the dystopian world imagined by Orwell and Huxley. Getting sick of being dictated to by elements of society about how I should think and what I should tolerate as acceptable in modern Australia.

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Yeah how dare organisations can have an opinion. Would have have said the same during Apartheid South Africa?

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Yes, how dare sporting clubs and organisations show support for the equality of their players, administrators and supporters. The conservatives wanted this distorted debate and now it’s here are telling organisations and individuals they ought not be participating in it. So much for free speech.

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Free speech!* Repeal 18C!!*

*Except for sporting clubs and American rappers.

Also, “keep politics out of sport” says No campaign, who then subsequently aired a Vote No ad right after the Macklemore performance. But no politics in sports, right guys?

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I worry when you say that “elements of society dictate what you should tolerate as acceptable in modern Australia”. People are born gay and some of these people want to get married. I don’t think we should simply “tolerate” fellow citizens. I don’t think we should question whether fellow citizens are “acceptable”.

There is a gay couple that live near my mum. They are in their 70s and have been together for over 40 years. This postal vote is about them. I want to do more than tolerate them or question whether they are acceptable. I want to acknowledge that their relationship has outlasted many traditional marriages. I want to let them marry in the country they love.

The word equality is damn powerful. And it does not come with an asterisk.

Meanwhile John Howard and Tony Abbott’s concerns that legislation that will allow same sex couples to marry will somehow have other implications on freedom of speech or religion is plain stupid. These two dinosaurs have passed a plethora of legislation in parliament and never once raised a concern about undue implications of a bill.

Every religion in Australia is free from having to obey anti-discrimination laws.Ever noticed that the Catholic Church does not have female priests? Ever noticed that no rabbis are protestant? Religion is already above the law - and gay couples are below the law.

Macklemore’s performance last night was great. And the “no” ad that followed was simply a downer. I never really cared about same-sex marriage as I am not gay. But now I realise that this is not about being gay - it’s about all Australians being equal and being allowed to have a celebration of marriage. I felt quite emotional when I posted my “yes” vote. It was a good feeling. It may well have been the most important question I have ever answered.

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We should definitely trust everything John Howard says. There is no way he would lie to further his personal agenda.

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Howard’s legacy is that he managed to outlaw the ability of Australians to own semi-automatic machine guns. This involved complex legislation that included a multi-billion dollar buy back of guns and every state agreeing to pass the exact same gun laws.

Yet he thinks that changing a few words in a marriage act (that he inserted) could cause havoc. Give me a break.

Stick to your legacy Mr Howard. Stick to your legacy as the PM who took the guns out of Australia.

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Sporting clubs should very much stay away from this debate! Major sporting organisations should stay neutral as their fans are split as well, why use sport for political agenda? Sport is Sport and LEAVE IT AS THAT!
I think all campaigning from BOTH sides is stupid, silly and harmful! This is the public’s vote, we don’t need influencing, we don’t need campaigning to remind us, we are all capable to vote for ourselves and by ourselves. All this campaigning has done is sadly reduced the number of “yes” supporters and angered people not to vote. I’m more then certain “Yes” has over %50, but this unessessery division should not happen.

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Where have I stated that I don’t tolerate or accept gay people? It is insulting that people who haven’t automatically jumped on the bandwagon have been labelled as hateful and homophobic. You do realise not all gay people are voting yes because of the issues Howard outlines and concerns about how far certain agendas will be pushed?

I’m sorry but I’m not going to give unquestioning trust to Canberra and I resent the feel good “love is love” platitudes being force fed to me in order to allow politicians to make changes to laws without thought for the consequences.

Fair enough. I don’t think that “no” voters are homophobic.

In other news I just saw an “It’s OK to say no” ad on Chanel 10.

https://www.coalitionformarriage.com.au/our_ad_gay_sex_education

Evidently in Canada “parents have lost their rights” since same sex marriage was made legal. This is frightening. My sister lives in Canada and I am going to call her later today. I hope my nephew is OK. He is only four.

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But you don’t tolerate them being married?

What exactly are your concerns? Religious liberties already permit Churches the ability to deny straight couples a wedding ceremony.

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