Same-sex marriage vote: Western Sydney electorates deliver staunch opposition
WESTERN Sydney’s cultural melting pot is behind 12 electorates comprehensively bucking the national trend and voting against gay marriage.
NSW
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WESTERN Sydney’s cultural melting pot is behind 12 electorates comprehensively bucking the national trend to vote against gay marriage.
And the upshot of the massive suburban same-sex marriage protest vote could also be a massive blow for Labor, with 10 of the 12 Western Sydney electorates that voted No making up the party’s political heartland.
It will also mean members in some of Labor’s safest seats will be openly going against the clearly stated views of their constituents when voting on the Bill begins in Canberra.
Three out of 10 people in the Western Sydney electorate are Islamic and two out of 10 are Catholic.
More than half are a traditional couple with children. And the unemployment rate is almost double the national 5.6 per cent average.
Blaxland, which recorded the highest protest vote in the nation at 74 per cent, boasts a population which is most commonly Lebanese and Chinese.
Jason Clare, who holds the seat for Labor with an 11.2 per cent margin, was philosophical about the huge turnout for the No vote.
“I’m not surprised,” Mr Clare said.
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SOUTHWEST SYDNEY SAYS NO TO SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
“Blaxland is a very socially conservative electorate.”
Labor veteran Tony Burke’s seat of Watson trailed behind Blaxland on almost 70 per cent against while shadow treasurer Chris Bowen’s seat of McMahon recorded an almost 65 per cent No vote.
Macquarie University cultural studies expert Anthony Lambert was not surprised either.
“These areas are culturally diverse but not diverse in terms of moving away from conservative understanding of what marriage traditionally means,” he said.
“Take Blaxland for example. There are a lot of different religious beliefs but they are all united in the belief that heterosexual marriage is the norm.”
Sydney University’s Rodney Smith confirmed Labor’s favouritism with the working class was still alive and well in an ethnically changing Western Sydney but there were dangers for the party on certain issues.
“The high unemployment in these areas is what makes them Labor voters,” Professor Smith said.
“And like many traditional Labor voters they held strong conservative values that were resistant to change.”
“These people vote Labor because of its economic policies not because of its stance on the environment or sexual equality.”
Political researcher Dr Mark Rolfe, from the University of NSW, said the southwest in particular has lower rates of wealth, income, university qualifications and professional occupations compared with the rest of Sydney.
But he said the people in the Labor No voting heartland do not “fit neatly into political stereotypes or line up with progressive Labor across the board”.
Their ethnicity and religion, imported from their countries of origin in Asia and the Middle East, played a big part in voting against gay marriage.
“These are the areas that were populated by the Vietnamese and Lebanese of the post-war manufacturing boom,” he said.
“These people came from socially conservative countries.”
Bankstown Muslim couple Sam and Sokna Mothi — among Blaxland’s No voters — said their decision “fell back to faith”.
“Gay marriage doesn’t fit into the Australian political structure very well because it’s not a class-based issue.”
“Whether Muslim, Christian or Jewish, you go by what’s in your book,” he said.
“At the end of the day I’m against it. It’s like people if they don’t like rugby league, if they like AFL, you don’t convince them to love rugby league.”
Other strongly Catholic seats, such as Greenway, which voted No with a 54 per cent majority, also came out strongly against.
Liberal MP David Coleman’s electorate of Banks voted No by 55 per cent but he has also vowed to back the new same-sex marriage bill.
ABC election expert Antony Green said the vote presented a dilemma for politicians.
“Gay marriage doesn’t fit into the Australian political structure very well because it’s not a class-based issue,” he said.
Large portions of Western Sydney’s population were born in non-English-speaking countries, which meant the gay marriage issue runs across cultural and religious lines.
“Which is why the parties themselves have struggled to deal with the issue in recent years,” he said.
TOP 10 NSW ELECTORATES VOTING YES (%)
Sydney 83.7
Wentworth 80.8
Grayndler 79.9
Warringah 75
Newcastle 74.8
N Sydney 71.8
Mackellar 68
Richmond 67.9
Shortland 67.7
Cunningham 65.7
TOP 10 NSW ELECTORATES VOTING NO (%)
Blaxland 73.9
Watson 69.6
McMahon 64.9
Fowler 63.7
Werriwa 63.7
Parramatta 61.6
Chifley 58.7
Barton 56.4
Banks 55.1
Greenway 53.6
Originally published as Same-sex marriage vote: Western Sydney electorates deliver staunch opposition
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