Victorian Trades Hall Council uses robocall campaign to push same-sex marriage ‘yes’ vote

ALMOST 300,000 Victorians received robocalls as part of a union campaign to convince the nation to vote in favour of legalising same-sex marriage.

ALMOST 300,000 Victorians received robocalls as part of a union campaign to convince the nation to vote in favour of legalising same-sex marriage.

The Victorian Trades Hall Council has dipped into its campaign budget to help with the push for marriage equality, using robocalls to encourage voters to sign up before the electoral roll closed on Thursday night.

Trades Hall secretary Luke Hilakari said dozens of volunteers followed up with about 70,000 phone calls to people who indicated they would vote “yes”, asking if they wanted to volunteer and campaign.

Thousands of people will rally for the marriage equality rally and march to Parliament House this weekend. Picture: Ellen Smith

He said Trades Hall was using its campaign budget — funded by its union members — along with extra donations to make and share posters and T-shirts and encourage people to vote.

“Equality is what unions are all about,” Mr Hilakari said.

“That means contributing what we can ... Unions, we’re good at organising. We can add a lot of value for the ‘yes’ team.”

Trades Hall volunteers will also have a presence at a rally for same-sex marriage at the State Library at 1pm on Saturday.

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Trades Hall secretary Luke Hilakari. Picture: Mark Stewart

It comes as the Australian Electoral Commission revealed almost one million changes were made to the electoral roll ahead of next month’s postal survey.

More than 16 million Australians are now enrolled to vote — the biggest number in the nation’s history — after an extra 90,000 people added their names this month.

The AEC processed 765,000 changes to people’s details since the postal survey was announced and at least another 165,000 transactions will be processed over the weekend.

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