Gay marriage in australia

NATIONAL RESULTS

Response

Should the regulation be changed to permit same-sex couples to marry?

Of the eligible Australians who expressed a view on this question, the majority indicated that the statute should be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry, with 7,817,247 (61.6%) responding Yes and 4,873,987 (38.4%) responding No. Nearly 8 out of 10 eligible Australians (79.5%) expressed their view.

All states and territories recorded a majority Yes response. 133 of the 150 Federal Electoral Divisions recorded a majority Yes response, and 17 of the 150 Federal Electoral Divisions recorded a majority No response.

Further data on response and participation within each state and territory is available through the menu.

State/TerritoryYesNoTotal
no.Yes %no.No %no.%
New South Wales2,374,36257.81,736,83842.24,111,200100
Victoria2,145,62964.91,161,09835.13,306,727100
Queensland1,487,06060.7961,01539.32,448,075100
South Australia592,52862.5356,24737.5948,775100
Western Australia801,57563.7455,92436.31,257,499100
Tasmania191,94863.6109,65536.4301,603100
Norther

Why Australia's same-sex marriage result was not a surprise

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Polls had long shown Australians supported queer marriage, yet the results of a national vote include generated intense discussion. Political scientist Dr Shaun Ratcliff explores how predictions got it right, and why some areas voted the way they did.

At 10:00 on Wednesday 15 November, the leader statistician of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) announced that 61.6% of voters supported a change to the Marriage Act.

This represented the nearby culmination of a process years in the making that will (presumably) fallout in the legal recognition of lgbtq+ marriages once parliament passes legislation to that effect (promised by the finish of the year).

Why was it the chief statistician who announced these results, and why did Australia possess a public vote on this issue? A vote was not required by the constitution, as it was in Ireland in 2015. Nor does Australia have a tradition of votes to resolve policy issues, as many American states for example do.

Rather, it was held, largely, to resolve tensions within the incumbent centre-right Liberal-National coalition government.

Marriage Equality Around the Nature

The Human Rights Campaign tracks developments in the legal recognition of same-sex marriage around the world. Working through a worldwide network of HRC global alumni and partners, we lift up the voices of community, national and regional advocates and disseminate tools, resources, and lessons learned to empower movements for marriage equality.

Current State of Marriage Equality

There are currently 38 countries where same-sex marriage is legal: Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Uruguay. 

These countries have legalized marriage equality through both legislation and court decisions. 

Countries that Legalized Marriage Equality in 2025

Liechtenstein: On May 16, 2024, Liechtenstein's government passed a bill in favor of marriage equality. The law went into effe

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SAME-SEX MARRIAGE IN AUSTRALIA - A 2018 SNAPSHOT
On 15 November 2017, the Australian Bureau of Statistics announced the results of the Australian Marriage Statute Postal Survey. A total of 12.7 million (79.5 per cent) of eligible Australians expressed their view, with the majority (61.6 per cent) indicating that the law should be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry. All states and territories recorded a majority 'Yes' response.


Amendments to the Marriage Act 1961 came into consequence on the 9 December 2017 enabling same-sex couples to legally marry in Australia. The right to marry under Australian law is no longer determined by sex or gender and theNotice of Intended Marriage (NOIM) form has been updated to reflect these changes.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has worked in conjunction with the Attorney-General’s Department and the state and territory Registries of Births, Deaths and Marriages to assemble and publish statistics on same-sex marriages from the go out of this legislative change.

Numbers and information about all marriages register