Support for SSM in Australia has increased since it was legalised

A new poll shows that support for marriage equality has increased in Australia since same-sex marriage was legalised in December.

The Essential Poll showed support has increased from 61 per cent to 65 per cent.

The groups who have most increased their support for marriage equality include people aged 18–34 and women.

Greens voters are the most likely to support same-sex marriage, with 89 per cent saying they agree with marriage equality.

Fewer people now say they are against marriage equality since it has been legalised, down from 32 per cent to just 26 per cent.

LGBTI rights advocate Rodney Croome of Just.equal said polls have shown substantial support for marriage equality for more than a decade.

“If the government had paid attention to the long history of polls showing majority support for marriage equality, rather than waste a hundred million dollars on an unnecessary, damaging postal survey, we could have had marriage equality much sooner,” he said.

Croome welcomed the new poll’s results, saying that Australians have now been able to see that allowing same-sex marriage is a positive and causes no harm.

“Support for marriage equality is up because Australians have finally seen with their own eyes that the one and only outcome is a more equal and inclusive nation where loving, committed same-sex couples can tie the knot in front of family of friends,” he said.

“Dire predictions about the sky falling in have not come to pass because they were based on fear, not fact.”