Whether you’re pro-plebiscite or not, one thing we can all agree on is there’s a lot of other stuff the $200 million proposed for holding the public vote could be spent on. Housing, homeless, education, the arts… and nuggets?
To the disappointment of many Australians, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is pushing forward with his pre-election promise to take the vote to the public in a non-binding and expensive plebiscite.
When the Howard government changed the Australian Marriage Act to exclude same-sex couples in 2004, there was no plebiscite. The $200 million dedicated to holding the plebiscite is a costly substitute for a simple and inexpensive vote in parliament. And $7.5 million of taxpayer’s money will go towards anti-LGBTI activists for their “NO” campaign.
Surely there’s better ways to spend the money?
One Australian who is against the divisive expensive plebiscite is Jimmy Raynes, who took it upon himself to do some number-crunching of his own to determine the best course to proceed. Raynes discovered that the proposed $200 million would buy a total of 311,284,046 McDonalds chicken nuggets. Rounding off to an even number he worked out that the 24,194,905 people living in Australia could each receive a 12 pack of nuggets and still have left-over money for BBQ sauce.
“It makes me terribly angry to think that so many people could be hurt by a divisive and unnecessary plebiscite campaign,” Raynes told BuzzFeed.
“I just wanted people to reflect on the absolute absurdity of subjecting love and human rights to a public vote.”
While he may not have taken into account vegetarians, he’s definitely hit the nail on the head with how much of a waste of money the proposed plebiscite is. A simple vote in parliament would mean that the $200 million could go towards something else that might benefit all of Australians.
What are your thoughts?
Article originally published as a feature on SameSame.com.au
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