The Equality Campaign has welcomed the announcement by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today that a further 800,000 Australians have returned their marriage surveys.
The ABS has released the latest return estimates from the 16 million survey forms sent out last month.
With only 10 days remaining until the recommended deadline to get the forms back, the ABS has confirmed that 67.5% or almost 11 million Australians have returned their forms.
When the ABS first began releasing estimates of returns a fortnight ago 9.2 million (57.5%) were returned within the first few weeks of the campaign. Last week the estimate increased to 10 million forms (62.5%), and over the last week the result has increased by an additional five per cent.
The Equality Campaign’s Shirleene Robinson said it was welcoming to see such a high rate of returns.
“Australians have recognised how important this issue is to their family, friends and colleagues and are doubling down to ensure that when this campaign is over we are left with the fair, equitable and inclusive country that we all want.
“The result today shows that even though Australians live busy lives they haven’t forgotten their LGBTI family and friends and their fight to be treated equally before the law.
“This is a great result and confirms that Australians want to get this done and are returning their surveys in record numbers,” Robinson said.
Alex Greenwich from the Equality campaign said there were only a few days remaining for people who had not received, or lost their form, to request a replacement.
“We urge anyone who has misplaced their survey form or has had it damaged to contact the ABS — there are only four days left to request a replacement form by this Friday 20th October.
“Time is also running out for the more than a million Australians who are working or travelling overseas to make their voices heard by asking a trusted friend to fill out and return the survey on their behalf or by voting online with a secure access code. It is vital that no Australian misses out.” Greenwich said.
Source: Equality Campaign Media Release
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