Marriage equality boosts Australia’s world democracy ranking

Marriage equality boosts Australia’s world democracy ranking
Image: Image: Ann-Marie Calilhanna.

Australia’s introduction of marriage equality has seen us rise to the eighth-highest ranked democracy in the world.

The change represents a turnaround from several years of slipping in the rankings on issues such as economic management and global citizenship, according to Crikey.

The Economist’s Intelligence Unit yesterday revealed that Australia has risen from its former place of tenth-highest ranked democracy, which appears attributable to our rejection of old discriminatory marriage laws.

Australia is now ranked behind only Norway, Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand, Denmark, Ireland and Canada.

The Intelligence Unit’s report said that while both Australia and Taiwan legalised same-sex marriage last year, “the [LGBTI] community continues to face significant difficulties in other parts of Asia”.

Australia is now one of 19 “full democracies”—countries deemed to have secure political freedoms, respect for civil liberties, diverse and independent media, and an incorruptible judiciary.

Our overall score on the index is 9.09, back to where it was in 2006 when the index began. The lowest was 9.01, between 2014 and 2016.

Indonesia fared the worst in this year’s rankings, dropping from 48th to 68th position.

Human rights abuses against LGBTI people in Indonesia have been increasing, with public floggings of gay men, arrests made at saunas, and trans women attempting to flee the country after mistreatment by police.

Greens senator Janet Rice this week wrote to Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop, condemning the treatment of LGBTI people in Indonesia and urging her to take action with the Indonesian Ambassador.

For the second year, the United States did not make the list of “full democracies”.

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One response to “Marriage equality boosts Australia’s world democracy ranking”

  1. Obvious question unresolved in article: was our acceptance of marriage equality as per many opinion polls the reason we’re ‘more democratic’ than previously or was it because we had a democratic process – aargh scratch that – “statistical survey” to resolve the issue?

    Coz if it’s just because we implemented marriage equality then great, but if it’s about the “democratic” “statistical survey” (nb those words don’t belong together as any statistician will confirm) then fuck them. The “statistical survey” was bullshit. As even conservatives now agree.