The voting rate in the same-sex marriage ballot reached 62.5% as of last Friday, according to the latest estimate of the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The rate has already topped the participation rate in the 2015 Irish referendum, which was 60.5%.

The ABS, in its update on Tuesday, said it estimated it had now received 10 million ballots. This was 800,000 higher than the previous number a week earlier.

The numbers are based on the bulk containers of returned forms, not on a count of individual ballots.

The vote runs until November 7 and the results will be released on November 15. Opinion polls are pointing strongly to a win for the “yes” campaign.

The Anglican Diocese of Sydney this week disclosed it had given A$1 million to the “no” campaign.

The Sydney archbishop, Glenn Davies, said in his presidential address to the diocese’s synod on Monday: “The stakes are high and the cost is high. Yet the cause is just and it is a consequence of our discipleship to uphold the gift of marriage as God has designed it – a creation ordinance for all people.”

The “yes” campaign on Tuesday urged those who had not yet voted, including people overseas, to do so. The co-chair of the Equality Campaign, Anna Brown, said: “There are still millions of surveys that need to be posted back to the ABS.”

Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.