The reverberations of the Irish vote in favour of marriage equality last week are now being firmly felt in Australia. 

For many people here, the main response to the stunning referendum result in Ireland has been: “What - In Ireland? That’s one of the most Catholic countries on Earth – how can that be?” and “ Wow – if they can pass it there, then surely they can pass it anywhere?”

But Ireland is just the most recent of many countries who have passed such legislation. They join most of the states of the US, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa the UK. In fact, it seems like the old ‘Commonwealth’ countries seem to be supporting the push for same-sex marriage. 

Within days of the Irish vote, the Labor Party here pushed for the marriage equality by tabling legislation in parliament.

The debate was underway. 

In our story in today’s Goulburn Post, Federal Member for Hume Angus Taylor talks about getting a “sounding” from the electorate on the issue of marriage equality before he proceeds to declare his opinion.  

Fair enough. The Goulburn Post online poll might be a good starting point for him to start getting his ‘soundings’.

The Poll of the issue on Sunday showed the yes vote at 68 per cent against the No vote of 32 per cent, from a total of 488 votes.  So it seems from this initial poll that two-thirds of people voting on this issue are in favour of marriage equality.

This is close to the actual Irish vote of 62 per cent voting in favour of Marriage Act changes to include same-sex couples. 

One thing that Mr Taylor repeatedly says is that this issue is about “respect”. 

“Whatever the consensus that’s going to emerge from this it is incredibly important we be respectful,” Mr Taylor said. 

We agree. It is an issue where everyone will have their own opinion - and this must be respected. This is why a referendum on the issue, rather than a political process would seem more appropriate. 

We would add one word to Mr Taylor’s “respect” though and that word is “love.” 

In the end this is not about not about politics or religion. It is also not about the semantics of “husband and wife vs spouse”. It is about love. Has love ever bowed to religion or politics or gender or title in the past? Should it? 

Let’s have a referendum on it and let our hearts tell us as a nation the right way to move forward on this important issue.