I was opposed to the same sex marriage plebiscite until reading Michael Kirby’s article “Parliament is the Proper Place for Enacting Laws,” The Australian, August 9, 2016, p. 12.
Kirby, the great dissenter on the High Court of Australia has no problem with unelected judges making law, and in fact he proudly proclaims: “The High Court of Australia in 2013 unanimously made it clear that the entire power to enact same-sex marriage in Australia rested with the federal parliament.”
Kirby doesn’t like plebiscites, saying that a “plebiscite, as a precondition to legislation, is a totally exceptional procedure with no foothold in the Constitution.”
But most importantly, Kirby has doubts that the same-sex marriage plebiscite will succeed. That, of course, is a good reason for having it. As well, we need to have it written into the Constitution that marriage is an act between a man and a woman, biologically defined.
Labor's position here: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/bill-shorten-toughens-rhetoric-against-samesex-marriage-plebiscite-20160824-gqzysh.html