Australians vote in favor of LGBTQ marriage equality

The results of Australia’s non-binding, non-compulsory postal plebiscite – basically, a useless poll – are in, and they’re as expected:

The majority of Australians support legalizing same-sex marriage, the results of a survey by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show.

The poll is non-binding but the government pledged to put a proposal to Parliament if voters were in favour of same-sex marriage.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Twitter that people had voted "overwhelmingly yes, for marriage equality."

[…]

The prime minister said now it's time for the Australian Parliament to "get on with it" and get legislation through before Christmas.

According the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 79.5 per cent of those eligible to participate responded to the survey. Of those, 61.6 per cent supported a change to the law, while 38.4 per cent did not.

Remind me why this was necessary again? I don’t mean to rain on anyone’s parade; this is good news, and even moreso with Prime Minister Turnbull’s vow to make same-sex marriage the law of the Australian land before the year is out (though whether he can deliver remains to be seen). And it’s sure to make homophobes shriek, which is always nice. I just don’t see why a new survey was needed (particularly one carried out so bizarrely), since we already know from previous surveys that most Australians support LGBTQ marriage rights, before Parliament could get on and actually legalize it.

It just seems like an unnecessary step and a waste of time (and public funds) before doing the obviously right and popular thing.