Cory Bernardi voices robo call in campaign against same-sex marriage

A FAMILIAR voice will be on the other end of the phone when one million calls are made to Australians.

CONSERVATIVE Senator Cory Bernardi is the voice of robo calls spreading his “vote No” message to Australian households.

In the recorded messages, broadcast by Channel 9, the former Liberal Senator urges call recipients to “stay on the line for just a moment” as he shares the reasons he’s voting against changing the marriage act.

The Australian Conservatives leader urges people to complete and return their marriage postal survey, and says: “While saying Yes or No is entirely up to you, I’d like to share with you the reasons why I’ll be voting No to changing the marriage act.”

Senator Bernardi claims the vote on same-sex marriage is ultimately “ a question about parents’ rights”.

“As a parent I am deeply concerned about how changing the marriage act will affect families and children,” he says in the message.

“Changing the marriage act will limit the right of parents to object to radical gay sex education and gender ideology programs from being taught in schools. Books like The Gender Fairy, which is aimed at four-year-olds, will become commonplace in our schools.”

Recorded calls featuring Cory Bernardi explaining while he’s voting No are expected to go out to one million Australian households. Picture: Matt Loxton/AAP

In the message, Senator Bernardi goes on to claim that allowing same-sex couples to marry would lead to more programs like “the controversial and misnamed Safe Schools program”, and would result in “removing gender from all areas of society”.

People are then asked to “press one” if they plan on voting No, two if they are going to vote Yes, and three if they are unsure or don’t know how they’ll vote.

“Thanks so much for sharing your views with me today,” the message concludes.

Nine reports up to a million homes in Victoria and South Australia will be targeted.

The message follows the introduction of a number of direct campaign tactics from each side of the debate.

The Yes campaign was blasted last weekend for sending out text messages encouraging people to “help make history and vote YES for a fairer Australia”. The No side has also been criticised for its robo calls.

Leading marketing expert Professor Vince Mitchell slammed both campaigns earlier this week, telling news.com.au each side has used “invasive” tactics and was acting like “grubby second-hand car dealers”.

The ABS will publish a running tally of the total number of forms that have been sent in each week. Picture: Will West/AFP Photo

As campaigners work to influence votes, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has promised to publish a weekly estimate of the total of same-sex marriage surveys sent back.

Each Tuesday before the November 7 deadline for the postal votes, the ABS will publish the number of survey forms online.

The initiative is intended to promote awareness of the poll — in case the calls, texts, and constant news stories weren’t reminder enough.