Relief flooded the LGBT+ community and its allies when a 61.6% majority voted yes to allow same-sex marriage.

Australian statistician David W. Kalisch caused everyone to hold their breath when he took the podium to make the official announcement, running through how the survey works, how many people had voted and more... But finally, the announcement was made and it has been met with a host of people making statements regarding the result.

“Now Australians have done their part, it’s time for Parliament to do its part,” Labor Senator Penny Wong said. Similar remarks have been made by further members of parliament, including Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull himself, who wants to see the legislation passed by Christmas.

“My commitment was to give Australia their say – that has been done. [The people] voted yes for fairness, they voted yes for commitment, they voted yes for love,” he says.

The Melbourne reaction #MarriageEquality pic.twitter.com/4Ye3VOd5NR

— Tom Cowie (@tom_cowie) November 14, 2017

ABS’ dedicated Marriage Survey website outlines statistics by state, division, age bracket and even gender. Overall, 79.5% of the entire population participated in the survey, which Kalisch stated was very high for a voluntary survey. Participation was over 77% for each region of Australia, except for Northern Territory which still had over half its population vote, coming in at 58.4% and every region (!) had a majority yes vote.

The highest response rates by age bracket were those aged 70-74 with over 89% of eligible voters responding. Disappointingly, the lowest return rate was from those aged 25-29, the age bracket that contained people campaigning the heaviest through social media.

More information on statistics for particular divisions can be found through the website. As for the next steps, Penny Wong outlined that this afternoon will see the Senate vote on whether Senator Dean Smith’s bill will be debated, and if the vote calls for amendments, it will be introduced tomorrow. The amending of the bill will not take place until the next sitting of Parliament which begins November 27.

But for now, as Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said this morning, “today we celebrate. Tomorrow we legislate.”