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High Court rules: Same-sex marriage postal survey to go ahead

UPDATED | Marriage equality advocates have lost a High Court bid to stop the government’s same-sex marriage postal survey.

Sep 07, 2017, updated Sep 07, 2017

The full bench of the High Court found the finance minister did have the power to fund the $122 million voluntary survey in the way he did.

The decision means the postal forms can be mailed from Tuesday as planned.

Upon hearing the court’s decision while in question time, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told parliament every Australian will now have their say on the issue.

“That is as it should be. We encourage every Australian to vote in this survey, to have their say,” he said.

“Lucy and I will be voting yes and I will be encouraging others to vote yes, but … above all, I encourage every Australian to have their say because unlike the leader of the opposition I respect every Australian’s view on this matter.”

Two groups of same-sex marriage advocates tried to stop the postal survey, arguing the government should not have bypassed parliament in funding it.

The government found the $122 million by using laws to make an advance payment to the finance minister in circumstances where there is an urgent need for spending and the situation was unforeseen.

The challengers argued the spending was neither urgent nor unforeseen, two key requirements for advancing money from the pool of funds that can be used without parliamentary approval.

The court unanimously dismissed the first challenge by a group of advocates led by independent MP Andrew Wilkie.

A second challenge led by Australian Marriage Equality was dealt with, but the High Court declared the finance minister’s determination was not invalid and he did have the authorisation to make it.

The voluntary survey was the government’s plan B after the Senate blocked the compulsory plebiscite promised by the coalition at the 2016 election.

Earlier, Australian Statistician David Kalisch, whose agency is running the survey, told a Senate inquiry at least $14.1 million had been spent to date, but this did not include a Department of Human Services call centre which has received more than 81,000 calls or the cost of updating the electoral roll.

Forms, letters and envelopes had been printed and were ready to be sent out on Tuesday, with the aim of getting all forms delivered by September 25.

A second media campaign, due to be launched on Sunday at a cost of $15 million, will focus on how the survey will operate and what people need to do to participate.

Labor senators quizzed officials on what checks were in place to stop offensive and misleading material from being distributed during the survey.

The committee heard Finance Minister Mathias Cormann intended to provide similar checks to those which applied during elections.

Under questioning from Labor senator Jenny McAllister, the Australian Electoral Commission admitted some voters who received letters relating to automatic enrolment updates would not have had their addresses automatically updated because of the shorter-than-usual time frame given for the close of the roll.

Kalisch said anyone in this position could contact the ABS and a survey form could be sent to their latest address.

However, they would still need to change their address on the roll before any future election.

The AEC has yet to send its bill to the ABS for what was described as “hundreds and hundreds of staff working overtime and weekends” to update the electoral roll.

– AAP

This story was originally published under the heading: ‘ABS has contingency plan for funding same-sex marriage survey’.

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