GetUp to launch marriage equality campaign tool after electoral rolls close

Progressive group, GetUp, has developed a website to coordinate groups campaigning for marriage equality after the rolls close for Australians wanting to participate in the same-sex marriage postal survey.

The new campaigning tool, built in conjunction with the Equality Campaign, will be launched as early as Friday, after the Australian Electoral Commission cutoff for the last enrolment applications at midnight on Thursday.

The website will be a hub for community organisations and individuals who want to campaign, to register their support, list events and access campaign resources for the yes campaign.

Resources will include tools to help supporters of marriage equality convince others and to encourage them to vote in the voluntary postal ballot, which will begin with the mail out of survey forms on 12 September, if it survives a high court challenge.

The executive director of the Equality Campaign, Tiernan Brady, has previously told Guardian Australia the campaign will rely on a network of 1,300 community organisations, faith groups, unions and corporations who have committed to help.

The Equality Campaign has a database of 200,000 who have signed up to help the campaign and is connected to an additional 250,000 people through social media. But the tool will help the Equality Campaign and GetUp reach a wider number of organisations and supporters.

Brady said that until midnight on Thursday the campaign’s “biggest focus” was to ensure people enrolled or updated their details.

“We’re mobilising tens of thousands of people at train stations, student campuses, and through the media.

“Our message is: if you want to have your say, you need to get on the roll.”

On Wednesday an analysis of the updates to the electoral roll since the postal survey was called showed that new enrolments were dwarfed by people updating their details, suggesting that there has not been a surge of youth enrolments.

Labor leader in the Senate, Penny Wong, said new enrolments were “lower than I would like”.

“What I would say to people is if you’re not on the roll, you can’t vote for marriage equality, and we risk handing too much of an advantage to those on the other side who will stop at nothing to deny equality to same-sex couples in this country,” she told the ABC on Wednesday.

Labor LGBTI spokeswoman, Terri Butler, said Labor MPs and volunteers were “very supportive” of the Equality Campaign’s enrolment push and were working “on social media, street stalls, standing at ferry stops to get people on the roll, you name it”.

Updated figures from the Australian Electoral Commission showed that between 8 and 22 August 54,545 people enrolled for the first time, with a further 523,334 enrolment updates for a total 577,879 enrolment transactions.

Brady was upbeat about the fact more than half a million people had signed up or changed details. He argued that people tended not to update their details between elections so the fact they had done so outside the normal cycle showed they were engaged with the campaign.

“They know if they’re details aren’t right they won’t get their ballot – they can’t walk up to a polling place … and it’s especially important for people abroad, who can usually vote at the embassy, to register to get a ballot.”