A new poll has revealed a majority of Perth’s suburban residents believe the Federal Government should allow same-sex marriage in Australia.
Sixty-five per cent of the 200 people surveyed agreed that the Gillard government should allow gay couples to marry.
The one-question survey, conducted by OUTinPerth, polled 100 people in the northern Perth suburb, Joondalup and the southern Perth suburb of Armadale.
In Joondalup, 69 per cent of people surveyed agreed that the government should allow gay marriage. Sixty-one per cent of participants surveyed in Armadale’s Town Centre supported same sex marriage.
At the Labor state conference last month, Labor MLC Kate Doust expressed her concern that gay marriage was a ‘CBD issue’ and that Labor was neglecting its suburban voters.
‘How does this affect people in the suburbs? Sometimes I think we tend to play to what I call, the CBD issues, rather than worrying about what the needs of our people in our suburbs are. What do those people think of these issues?’ she asked.
‘Sometimes I worry that as a party we do respond to these types of issues and we don’t think more broadly about how this plays out into our community.’
Former polls in Perth have found similar results such as last December’s Westpoll of 400 WA residents that found 61 per cent of participants were in favour of gay marriage. A 2010 Galaxy Poll surveyed 124 WA residents and found 59 per cent of residents agreed same-sex couples should be allowed to marry.
A spokesperson from the MLC’s office said Doust was unavailable for comment.
Check the full story out in the July edition of OUTinPerth Newspaper, on the streets today.
Benn Dorrington
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