More than one million emails today (23 March) were sent to federal MPs and senators in Australia’s ruling coalition calling for a free vote on gay marriage.

After Senator David Leyonhjelm announced that he would bring forward his Freedom to Marry Bill for debate later this week, advocates for and against gay marriage launched unprecedented email campaigns.

More than 7,634 Australians sent emails through Australian Marriage Equality’s (AME) website to all 134 Liberal and National members.

AME said all 1,022,956 emails were at midday, but to alleviate the burden on MPs’ offices it packaged the emails in special electronic files that will be sent all at once.

‘The large number of Australians who have sent emails to their federal government members reflects strong majority support for a marriage equality free vote,’ said Rodney Croome, AME’s national covenor.

‘It’s time for the Liberal and National parties to live up to their principle of individual freedom by allowing their parliamentary members the freedom to vote for marriage equality.’

‘We understand receiving so many individual emails is a problem for members and their staff so we decided to pack them into PDF files and send them all at once.

‘I hope members appreciate our courtesy and repay it by acknowledging this strong swell of community support for a free vote.’

Other pro-marriage equality organizations including Get Up! have also been involved in large-scale email campaigns.