Southwest Sydney votes no to marriage equality despite overwhelming national support
AUSTRALIA voted ‘yes’ for marriage equality – but southwest Sydney has said a resounding ‘no’. One electorate has the lowest ‘yes’ vote in the country.
The Express
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AUSTRALIA voted yes for marriage equality – but southwest Sydney has said a resounding no.
Results from the much-maligned Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey are now in – and more than 61 per cent of Australians overall voted in support of same sex marriage.
However, it is a firm no from every single southwest Sydney electorate.
Federal Labor MP Jason Clare’s Blaxland electorate - which includes working class suburbs Bankstown, Auburn, Villawood, Guildford and Regents Park - offered the least support for same sex marriage in the entire nation, with just 26.1 per cent voting yes.
In federal Labor MP Tony Burke’s Watson electorate, only 30.4 per cent voted yes.
Both Mr Clare and Mr Burke have indicated they would vote yes for same sex marriage.
Mr Clare said he was unsurprised about the result because Blaxland is a socially conservative electorate.
“I’ve always known the views of my electorate on this issue and I’ve always been upfront with them about mine,” Mr Clare said.
“Good people with good hearts can have different views on this important issue.”
Almost every other southwest Sydney electorate – Banks, Barton, Fowler, McMahon and Werriwa – also voted against same sex marriage.
Fowler federal Labor MP Chris Hayes personally opposes same sex marriage, but has previously said he was committed to voting in line with the Australian people’s wishes following the survey.
Every other southwest Sydney representative – Liberal MP David Coleman and Labor MPs Linda Burney, Chris Bowen and Anne Stanley – supports same sex marriage.
Their personal stances are at odds with the overwhelming opposition expressed by their constituents in the survey.
Mr Burke and Mr Hayes have been contacted for comment.
Macarthur and Hume both vote yes.