In the Lyne electorate, 81.3 per cent of eligible voters responded to the Australian Marriage Law postal survey and 55.3 per cent voted yes to allow same sex marriage.

Gillespie to respect majority view of electorate on marriage equality

The Sydney Morning Herald report ed on Friday, December 8 that when it came to the final vote on same-sex marriage, it was standing room only on the "yes" side of the House of Representatives, while a lonely group of just four "no" voters perched on the other side. 

But some MPs were missing from the historic event.

SMH journalists Judith Ireland and Latika Bourke reported the House of Representatives does not officially record MPs who abstain, but is estimated about 14 MPs did not vote on the same-sex marriage bill.

This included some of Parliament's most high profile "no" advocates, including treasurer Scott Morrison, former prime minister Tony Abbott and former defence minister Kevin Andrews. Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce was also among the group, along with renegade Liberal Nationals MP George Christensen, conservative West Australian Liberal Andrew Hastie and Assistant Health Minister David Gillespie.

While abstaining could be interpreted as fence-sitting on a controversial issue, many MPs have explained they chose to forgo their votes to try and accommodate both their personal views on same-sex marriage and the clear majority "yes" vote in the postal survey. Others have added that had the bill been amended to include more protections for freedom of speech and religion, they may have voted differently. 

Dr Gillespie said, on November 15 when the survey results were known, “I look forward to now dealing with the legislation that facilitates the will of our electorate and the Australian people with the religious protections that have been committed to throughout the debate leading up to the completion of this survey.”

Dr Gillespie was approached on December 8 for a comment but had not responded at the time of publication.