In your “All Around Us” column in the Standard Bearer, 15th September issue, you had a report on the Irish vote for “Same Sex Marriage.”

As horrible and repulsive [as] we find this decision, the report missed one very vital aspect: Ireland does not have compulsory voting. It had been reported here in Australia that the vote was passed by 60% of the votes, but what was conveniently left out of the report was that only 37% of those eligible voters actually cast a vote. That means a whopping 63% either didn’t see it as relevant or couldn’t care less. Bearing these figures in mind, the vote got through on only 20% of the actual population voting yes.

I think the fact that 63% did not vote on such an important issue is an equally worrying trend.

Merv Hurse

Kallangur, Queensland, Australia