Tamworth’s marriage equality conversation
The majority of New England voters support same-sex marriage – but the region’s support base is still smaller than a lot of other electorates.
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A recent ReachTEL survey revealed 50.5 per cent of people in New England supported same-sex marriage, which was the lowest figure returned by 11 other electorates polled last week.
The survey was done for Marriage Equality Australia, and quizzed voters from 12 coalition-held electorates across the country.
In New England’s survey, 39 per cent of respondents said same-sex couples shouldn’t be allowed to marry, while 10.5 per cent were undecided.
About 35 per cent of Barnaby Joyce’s New England constituents strongly agreed the coalition are “out of touch when it comes to marriage equality”, while 54.7 per cent thought their local MP should be given the chance to vote on a same-sex marriage bill.
More than 45 per cent of New England think it’s very important the matter is resolved in 2017.
A recent poll by The Leader attracted more than 700 votes and found 56 per cent were in favour of same-sex marriage.
The other electorates (Bowman, Brisbane, Cook, Fisher, Goldstein, Moncrieff, Pearce, Petrie, Robertson, Swan and North Sydney) covered a mix of metropolitan and regional areas.
The survey found 60.92 per cent in favour of same-sex marriage across the coalition electorates.
The inner-city Melbourne seat of Goldstein, held by openly-gay Liberal MP Tim Wilson, had the highest-approval rating with 77.1 per cent in favour.
This was followed by North Sydney’s 70.8 per cent for marriage equality, an electorate also held by openly-gay Liberal MP, Trent Zimmerman.
The survey was conducted on March 15 and the number of residents surveyed per electorate ranged from 648 to 753.