On November 15, 2017, I received the welcome wake-up call at my hotel in Bangkok. It was my partner of 48 years, Johan, phoning to tell me of the outcome of the “postal survey”, just announced, in favour of an Australian law on same-sex marriage.
The vote (61.6% yes; 38.4% no) confirmed countless opinion polls. So, it was not really surprising. Such polling is pretty accurate now and could have been conducted for a fraction of the costs of the postal vote.
However, the flawed process demanded by the government had a silver lining. It propelled the federal parliament
