Australia’s Parliament has voted 73-72 in favor of having its members canvass voters to determine whether the public would support a change in marriage laws to allow same-sex unions. Currently, gay marriage is not legally recognized in Australia, but the Australian Greens, the minority political party that is leading the charge to change the law, argue that a majority of Aussies want to let same-sex couples get married.
Although both majority parities—the Labor Party and Liberal Party—oppose gay marriage, many Labor members split with their party’s platform to pass the measure, according to the Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Greens Member of Parliament Adam Bandt, who proposed the motion, told the AFP, “This is an important step in reforming the law. What we set out to do when we moved this motion was to take the national debate to the next level and we have achieved that.”
