Yes, many so-called 'democracies' aren't true democracies. For example, many people confuse Democracy with Ochlocracy (aka Mob rule), which is what happens when you only consider the elective process, but ignore the other tenets.
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Tbh I don't even agree that such decisions as this should even be subject to a referendum. They should be decided by constitutional judges who are tasked with deciding what is consistent with a country's constitution. If a country proclaims to be "democratic", "free", "fair" and in support of things like "human rights" then there shouldn't even be a debate.
For all the flaws my own country has (and yes, I realise it has many) South Africa changed our laws on gay marriage without any need for a referendum because our constitutional court found that we needed to do so if we were to be consistent with our constitution. At the time the laws were changed we still had a lot of people with very conservative views on the topic, but by making the ruling it did, people have actually become a lot more tolerant of the idea.
It was never a question of "do you believe in gay marriage". It was a statement of "if you genuinely believe in democracy and human rights then you need to accept gay marriage".
Last edited by Raelbo; 2017-11-15 at 02:38 PM.
Oh most definitely.
It just saddens me that we had to go through all this to get an answer that that was already known. Most people expected a 60-40 split because that's how most polls and public forums were already leaning. But nope we had to spend $122m on this because we don't already have enough real issues to spend money in here (NBN fixes anybody? lol).
That's nice and all, but it doesn't mean anything when by the time it goes through, most people will have died from a spider or kangaroo or bird or a kohuwala. Rip
I'm honestly more shocked that it had an 80% voter turn out. With electoral voting being compulsory by law in Australia, it's great to see that a non-compulsory vote (one of only 4 in Australia's history) had such huge numbers.
Good for them, +1 to the ever-growing list. I can only hope others will follow soon.
P.S.
Turnout of 80%? Thats pretty impressive and 62% for Yes is quite decisive too. Unlike certain country with a certain referendum about certain union.
The results aren't split by age, but I think it's pretty safe to say those are weighted towards old people and rural voters.
Read this three times before I figured out you meant "koala".
They allowed you to post on this forum, tomorrow you'll be sodomising your mother!
/slippery slope fallacies
The strongest 'No' electorates were the Western Sydney immigrant suburbs. Rural 'straya was weaker than inner city 'straya but still surprisingly mostly in the Yes camp. I also know (anecdotes...) and am related to a good number of young people who are firmly in the homophobic camp.
Alas, I'm in one of the top 5 Yes electorates, and I contributed to that number.
Yeah but it was only by a few percent even in the case of Western Sydney.
I strongly suspect that age was a more determinate factor - thing is you can't see anything on the geo map because geography simply isn't as big a lead indicator as you'd imagine.
I was actually expecting QLD to be the biggest No state...