Australia's finance ministers had one reason to be pleased with a postal survey that rebuffed their views on same-sex marriage.
It came in under budget.
In fact, many millions of dollars less than the $122 million provided, Australian Statistician David Kalisch declared as he announced the 'yes' vote had prevailed on Wednesday.
"While the costs are still being tallied, I am confident that the final costs of the survey will be under $100 million," he told reporters.
Treasurer Scott Morrison in August directed the Australian Bureau of Statistics to seek the views of some 16 million eligible voters on whether the law should be changed to allow people of the same sex to marry.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
Along with Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, Mr Morrison voted 'no'.
Nearly 13 million other Australians also had their say with every state and territory returning a majority 'yes' vote.
"Ultimately, the strong participation by the Australian public and their clear responses to the survey have delivered this quality information back to the community," Mr Kalisch said.
"Australians can have trust in these statistics."
The postal survey also restored the reputation of the ABS which had been battered by its 2016 Census night fail after its online operations were subject to numerous denial-of-service attacks.
The Australian Electoral Commission, the Department of Human Services and Australia Post also contributed to the conduct of the survey.
The announcement was made outside the ABS headquarters in Canberra.
"It is probably the only time that millions of Australians will gather to hear from the Australian Statistician," Mr Kalisch said in his opening remarks.
