Australians voted in massive numbers for marriage equality and a fair go

 It’s worth taking a moment to compare this vote to past public votes. Australia has held 44 public referendums to change the constitution and only seven produced a national vote higher than yesterday’s result. Most of these votes were for rather dull and technical constitutional tweaks, such as capping the retirement age for judges and tinkering with the Senate voting system. In contrast, this was a vote about a social change that wasn’t on the political agenda 15 years ago, and which had been deemed too controversial to be passed by the last Labor government just four years ago.There can be no doubt about the outcome of the long-running marriage survey. More than 60% of Australians who took part cast a yes vote, with turnout coming close to 80% of the record-high 16 million Australians on the electoral roll.This result becomes more impressive when you dive into the data – all age and gender groups came out to vote in large numbers, with every state voting yes and a wide variety of electorates reporting a majority yes vote. This result does not reveal a country split down the middle but a country where a majority (small or large) supports marriage equality in most places.