MEMBER for Wannon Dan Tehan will not make a priority of campaigning for one answer over the other in the forthcoming same-sex marriage postal survey.
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Mr Tehan told Sky News on Sunday he would first look to working within his ministerial portfolios in defence, cybersecuity and veterans’ affairs.
“That is a lot of work, plus my most important job is, of course, looking after my own electorate,” he said.
Mr Tehan, who believes the definition of marriage should not be changed, said he would discuss the issue with constituents.
A number of people have threatened to boycott the non-compulsory postal survey, which was launched after a second failed attempt to legislate for a compulsory in-person plebiscite.
Mr Tehan said it wasn’t up to him or anyone else to determine the minimum number of respondents to guarantee the survey’s credibility.
“The whole idea of it is that it will be optional. It’s not up to me to dictate what number is meaningful and one that is not,” he said.
“if they decide en masse not to vote then that’s their right to do that.
“I think we need to focus on the issue and the process that we’ve got. It’s not the first preference we had.”
Mr Tehan has previously pledged to follow the national plebiscite result when voting in parliament on whether or not to legalise same-sex marriage.
The postal survey ballots are due to be distributed to mailboxes by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on September 12 and are due back by November 7.