I predict, before we have a final decision, we will have a general election.

The last paragraph in your Wednesday editorial pretty well sums it all up. You state that that a change of government will see the law changed anyway.

What better referendum can you have that could be fought on the issues of same sex marriage, energy security and cost of living pressures?

Each candidate will have to indicate to their constituents their positions on these issues and this will in turn indicate their party’s position and thus influence voting trends.

Party leaders will be responsible "issue" messaging as they should be and voters will elect those they believe best represent their values and standards.

At present the difference in ideology of all parties could not be more stark and this makes voter selection much easier.

For many of us it’s unthinkable. Until it happens, and then it’s too late.

We all face emergencies, as large as a bushfire or as personal as a medical crisis. They can all be devastating, as so many people found out last year in the flooding across much of northern NSW in the aftermath of severe Cyclone Debbie.

In Emergency Preparedness Week (September 17-24 ), Red Cross is asking you to take one easy action to make your next emergency less stressful.

These are simple and practical steps you can take to protect the people you love, your own wellbeing and the things you value most.

Easy things to help you prepare include:

Think about being in an emergency situation and how you might react. This will help you stay calmer and respond better when an emergency happens.

Find out where to get important disaster information, like your local radio emergency broadcaster. This means you’re better informed when an emergency happens.

Get to know your neighbours. They’re the people who might support you and look out for you when an emergency happens.

For more easy things to do, get your Red Cross RediPlan at redcross.org.au/prepare.

Those of us who thought, like the old song, that “love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage” have had a lot of confusing information thrown at us recently about same-sex couples and the way their non-marriages give them all the same rights as married people.

My wife and I were surprised, therefore, to attend the Roads and Maritime Service Centre last week to change our car registration, where we were asked to produce our marriage certificate.

This led me to wonder what other equal rights might not be there, particularly when my daughter, currently unable to marry her long-time partner, gets to our age.

Will she be asked for a marriage certificate if her not legally recognised wife is in hospital, or worse?

Australia Post apparently charges hundreds of dollars for a name change, but not if you can provide a – you guessed it – marriage certificate.

Those who oppose same sex marriage are resting their hopes on the oldies like me.

But if you think we are going to support discrimination against our own kids and grand-kids, you are about to be very disappointed.

My daughter doesn’t need my permission to get married. But she needs yours.

Please join me in voting yes.