Former High Court judge Michael Kirby claims the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey (same-sex marriage survey) is not a plebiscite, but a voluntary, non-binding, non-compulsory vote of citizens that has never before been held under Australia's constitu

By putting the Australian Bureau of Statistics in charge of the upcoming same-sex marriage postal survey, the Australian Government is failing to learn from its previous privacy blunders, Monique Mann writes.

Once the plebiscite bill for same sex marriage is passed by the House of Representatives, it will then be tested on the floor of the Senate, where it now looks unlikely to get the support the government needs. Federal Attorney-General, George Brandis, has appealed to the Labor party to support the bill, saying it would...

Like much else in the forty-fifth parliament’s infancy, the same-sex marriage plebiscite has become hostage to the dynamics of contemporary politics: a weakened prime minister, a ferociously oppositional federal opposition led by a man also less than secure in his job, and a large, attention-craving Senate crossbench. As with last week’s big topic, political finance...

Toowoomba’s water vote shows the potential risk in sending every issue to the people, write Peter Mares and Brian Costar.