Australia’s government is currently circulating a public survey, or something to that effect, on the topic of same-sex marriage. Many are questioning why that country’s leaders are taking this decision to this method of public consultation.

Online news source The Conversation writes in an editorial 

As the nation continues to wrangle over same-sex marriage – when much of the developed world has long since resolved the issue – it might be tempting to wonder if we’ve always been a little conservative on social change, hamstrung by a collective fear of the new. But as Frank Bongiorno writes, it hasn’t always been the case – you need only look at Australia’s early embrace of women’s suffrage, for example, to see that we were once pioneers rather than laggards on social progression.

What’s happening, Bongiorno argues, is a profound failure of leadership rather than any innate cultural problem. Political leaders are trailling behind public opinion rather than doing anything to influence it.

Read their whole story on the topic here.