One in five Australian voters believe “homosexuality is immoral”
Just over three million Australian voters agree with the statement, “I believe homosexuality is immoral”.
Following news that Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has promised a referendum on legalising same-sex marriage this year if his government is re-elected, new research from Roy Morgan reveals that one in five Australian voters believe homosexuality is immoral.
According to the research, the majority of Australian voters that believe homosexuality is immoral give their first preference votes to the Coalition parties. 28% of Liberal voters and 32% of National voters (Coalition parties) believe homosexuality is immoral.
In comparison, 15% of Labor voters and 4% of Greens voters agree with the statement that homosexuality is immoral, while 31% of Independent/Other voters agree.
Overall, Australians who vote for the Coalition parties as a first preference are about 70% more likely than others to believe homosexuality is immoral.
Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine explained: “Australians who believe that homosexuality is immoral outnumber gay people by almost seven to one (although as we’ve previously reported, it remains difficult to get a final, true estimate of how many people are gay).
“For many, a plebiscite that gives both camps and everyone in between an equal say on an issue that directly affects only the minority group lies somewhere between odd and offensive.
(Malcolm Turnbull, image: Stefan Postles/Getty Images)
“A little over three million voters still believe homosexuality is immoral—and the majority of them give their first preference votes to the Coalition, and another fifth vote for Other parties whose preferences would mostly flow to them. So on a two-party preferred basis, the Coalition has a 40-point lead on the issue.”
Eight of the top 10 electorates where voters are most likely to believe that homosexuality is immoral are held by the Coalition government – although number two and three are held by Labor.
Maranoa, Queensland is the second-safest Coalition seat in Australia, and also where the most voters believe it’s immoral to be gay at 40%.
In Melbourne, the only Greens-held seat in federal parliament, 95% of voters don’t think there is anything wrong with homosexuality.
In prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s seat of Wentworth, 86% of voters disagree that homosexuality is immoral, while in former prime minister Tony Abbott’s seat of Warringah, Sydney, 89% of voters disagree with the statement.
