Mark Dreyfus Says Same Sex Marriage Challenge in the High Court is a 50-50 Proposition
When he appeared on the ABC’s ‘Insiders’ programme yesterday, Shadow Attorney General Mark Dreyfus said that the marriage equality groups challenging the postal plebiscite had a strong case on two grounds: first that a $122 million survey should not be conducted without the Parliament appropriating money for it; and second, that such a survey went beyond the statutory powers of the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
He said that he was not prepared to comment on how the case would go but said that the applicants had a 50-50 chance of winning.
He said that it was likely that the Court would make a quick decision once the arguments were heard and would probably give its reasons later.
Mr Dreyfus said that the Labor Party was encouraging everyone to participate in the poll.
He said that a response of over 50% of the eligible voters would be a pretty good turnout and expressed the view that it was disappointing that the Prime Minister was not going to campaign for a yes vote.
The Shadow Attorney also said that Labor would examine the laws proposed by the government to subject the campaign to the usual electoral rules, including protections against malicious publications and bribery, which do not currently apply because the ABS is conducting the survey.
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