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The Postal Plebiscite Is Being Set Up So The 'No' Is Binding And The 'Yes' Is Not

The past 24 hours in Australian politics has exasperated, frustrated and hurt people and families.
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There's a human rights issue taking up a lot of Australia's slow bandwidth right now. Like a zombie version of Groundhog Day, the one-eyed, rotting, groaning reanimated corpse of the marriage equality debate has risen again.

Turnbull is the easy-to-blame target in all of this, and he's a well-deserved one, having as much substance as a battered, yellow tin duck getting shot at in an endless cycle of headline-hogging tactics.

The past 24 hours in Australian politics has exasperated, frustrated and hurt people and families, while the politicians continue to fail to do the jobs they were elected to do; enact legislation that represents the will of the voting public and is in the best interests of the populace.

Marriage equality is about uniting families, gaining spouses, and putting parents on an equal footing. No-one loses, and so many people gain, especially children.

This time the process is a postal plebiscite, so don't forget to make sure your voting house is in order. Yeah nah. Why bother, I hear you ask?

It's true that this postal plebiscite is being set up so that the "no" vote is pretty much binding and the "yes" isn't. The process is overwhelmingly likely to end in a wasted sham.

That said, a vote still sends a message, despite this Government managing marriage equality as efficiently as a toddler trying to herd cats into a large box of custard tarts.

It couldn't be a bigger mess. And it's immensely distressing to millions of Australians to see that the Government is so obviously doing it on purpose.

But what is the purpose, Turnbull and co? Marriage equality is inevitable. Right now it's just another embarrassment for Australia on the world stage (along with our woeful treatment of refugees). It would normally be a straightforward parliamentary vote that reflects three quarters of the Australian population's wishes.

Marriage equality is about uniting families, gaining spouses, and putting parents on an equal footing. No-one loses, and so many people gain, especially children.

Ricky Gervais summed it up: "Same sex marriage is not gay privilege, it's equal rights. Privilege would be something like gay people not paying taxes, like churches don't."

Meanwhile, with all of the political hand-wringing going on, all we need to do is take a look across the seas and check out New Zealand, Ireland, the USA (current sitting President notwithstanding), France, Denmark, the UK, Iceland, the Netherlands, Iceland, Argentina, Colombia, Canada... shall I continue? They have marriage quality. The sky didn't fall in. Life went on. And people didn't suddenly start marrying their horses.

It's high time Australia pulled its socks up in this race to the bottom. Today, the voice of reason was the NT News, having taken drunk snakes, melted thongs and massive people-eating crocs off its front cover for the blistering headline 'DO IT NOW'.

Australia is shouting for marriage equality and Australians are crying for it. Why is this such a drama? Why the waste? The lies?

I know the incredibly well-funded folk of the Australian Christian Lobby and co have way too much influence, but surely that can't be all of it? What on earth is forcing this Groundhog zombie to rise and rise and rise again when it should have been put out of its misery years ago?

I'm open to conspiracy theories by now, because I'm at a complete loss as to why the man supposedly in charge of this country, and who famously spent a big part of his career holding his own with Kerry Packer, is scared of a zombified groundhog and the wrath of most of Australia's population when he could just get on with it and do his damn job.

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