Man tries to sell his same-sex marriage vote for $1500
How much is the vote on same-sex marriage worth to you?
For a Sydney man, it’s $1500.
The man, believed to be from Parramatta, was caught trying to hawk his vote on eBay for $1500, but it’s since been removed.
Another person also posted an advertisement on Gumtree trying to sell their vote for $600 but that was removed too due to the site's policies.
Titled "Buy my vote", the seller said they had no desire to fill out the form and wanted to sell his vote because he doesn’t “care but thought there are people who do”.
“What is the plebiscite worth to you (sic),” the ad reads.
“The reason I’m selling my vote is because either way I don’t care but thought there are people who do.
“Part of this auction (sic) proceeds will go to help kids battling cancer”.
Australians for Equality campaign executive director Tiernan Brady and Australian Christian Lobby managing director Lyle Shelton said the man needed to take the vote more seriously.
“What an idiot,” Mr Tiernan told the ABC.
"What do you think you're doing? This is a serious discussion about real people's lives.”
Mr Shelton said there were “always people out there who do silly things”.
'Trying to mislead us': 'Yes' campaign responds to 'No' camp with counter-ad on same-sex marriage
'You can say no': First anti-gay marriage ad airs in Australia
Petition calls for doctor in 'no' campaign same-sex marriage ad to be deregistered
“And this really does trivialise what is a very important decision for the Australian nation," he said.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has been in touch with a number of websites including eBay, Facebook, Amazon, Alibaba and Gumtree with its concerns.
An ABS spokesman said eBay and Facebook have confirmed listings for survey forms and responses would “not comply” with the sites’ policies and “they will block and remove any such listings”.
The ABS has also warned selling or buying of responses to the vote was also a criminal offence and could carry a maximum penalty of $2100 or a potential 12-month jail sentence.
South Australian senator Nick Xenophon said any attempt to distort the results of the survey must be me with “appropriate legal safeguards”.
“Otherwise it makes a complete mockery of it,” he said.
