Mathias Cormann is offering to pass a law to enshrine legal protections for the postal survey. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The conundrum arises because the $122 million postal survey will not be conducted under the rules of the Commonwealth Electoral Act but by the Australian Bureau of Statistics under its relevant legislation. Normally, the Act prohibits material that is "misleading or deceptive", with criminal penalties. Senator Cormann said he was willing to "facilitate swift passage of legislation to give effect to similar protections" as the Electoral Act, but it would require the support of Labor, the Greens and the Senate crossbench. It would apply to not just to this postal survey but "processes of this nature". "I'm putting this out as an offer," Senator Cormann said. "If people on either or both sides of the debate believe that it would be sensible to have some rules that are enshrined in law, given that this is now happening, then I guess it'll be a matter for them to help persuade Labor and the Greens that it would be a sensible thing to do." "Our preference always was to have these protections in place," he said. The compulsory attendance plebiscite would have automatically come with those protections, but it was rejected twice by the Senate.

Illustration: Ron Tandberg Labor, which blocked the full plebiscite, on Thursday reluctantly endorsed the voluntary postal survey by confirming it would campaign for a "yes" vote, effectively deadening the possibility of a mass boycott. In doing so, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had given his blessing to material that would "vilify and demean" LGBTI families. But he warned a boycott would only advantage opponents of marriage equality. "We cannot let illegitimate tactics deter us and sit on the sidelines," he said. "Voting 'yes' is not about endorsing this process, it is about refusing to walk past our fellow Australians when they need us." And gay Labor senator Penny Wong backed that call in an opinion piece written exclusively for Fairfax Media.

"Right now a boycott can only play into the hands of those who would deny us our rights," she wrote. "We didn't want to be here. We shouldn't be here. But now we are here, we have to fight." However, same-sex marriage advocates are dealing with an outbreak of anger within the LGBTI community, some of whom are calling for a boycott to rob the poll of legitimacy. That was led by former High Court judge Michael Kirby, who indicated he and his partner of 50 years would not participate in the survey. Advocates are first launching separate legal challenges in the High Court, one of which was filed on Thursday, but will campaign to prevail in the survey if it goes ahead. Equality Campaign executive director Tiernan Brady told Fairfax Media people should enrol now to vote "for any and all eventualities". "We're going to continue to pursue every single avenue, political and legal to see how we can prevent this utterly unnecessary plebiscite," he said.

"LGBTI people, their parents, their families and friends have campaigned for years to make marriage equality the law of the land ... they will continue to campaign until marriage equality is a reality." Mr Turnbull on Thursday confirmed that if the High Court did strike down the postal vote, there would be no parliamentary vote on same-sex marriage under his government. "We will not facilitate the introduction of a private members' bill on this matter unless the Australian people have given their support through a 'yes' vote through this national vote that we are now undertaking," he said.