Abbott talks with gay activist

Abbott talks with gay activist

Anti-discrimination, policy and those comments were all up for discussion when Opposition leader Tony Abbott met with Australian Coalition for Equality in a closed room meeting.
Abbott has still not indicated if he will take up offers to publicly meet with a group of gay and lesbian people, but his spokeswoman yesterday confirmed that he met with ACE last Wednesday.
Abbott’s media department again turned down Sydney Star Observer’s request for an interview.
ACE spokesman Corey Irlam said the meeting was a productive first step, although he continued to encourage Abbott to speak more publicly.
“We met to talk with him about concerns people had about his statements, and the impact that has on perceptions that the Liberal Party no longer has bipartisan support for the GLBTI community,” Irlam told Sydney Star Observer.
The meeting focused on policy development and the need for bipartisan support on anti-discrimination legislation,
“Mr Abbott was responsive to the fact that the federal Government is the only jurisdiction in Australia that doesn’t have discrimination laws protecting the GLBTI community, beyond the limited area of protection in federal employment.
“We would hope to see the Opposition consider their position and support discrimination laws in a bipartisan fashion, like we saw in 2008 when we removed discrimination from federal laws.”

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6 responses to “Abbott talks with gay activist”

  1. Tony Abbott has shown genuine interest in progressing the position of gay and lesbian people in the past week than Kevin Rudd ever has. Abbott is talking openly and honestly, and is in no way hostile. Of course a guy of that vintage and background is going to be a bit cautious, but he has come a long way. We should be congratulating him, not condemming him. He has the capacity to bring a lot of conservative people with him on this issue.

  2. What we should be asking Tony Abbott is this:do you support Gay marriage?If he doesn’t i think you have your answer there.We demand nothing less than this.

  3. Well, why am i not surprised at Abbotts media unit, again turning down an invitation for Abbott to met with the GLBTI groups. Lets not forget that during, the just over 11yrs of the homophobic Howard government, the then so called “worlds best tresurer” Costello, reputedly refused to met the the GLBTI, so there’s a long history of homophobia in the liberal party ( with the exception of a very small handfull of MPs.

  4. This is about embarrassing Kevin Rudd and Federal Labor’s Hate.

    Real action would be announcing the Federal Protection of our community and meeting with many people in our community.

  5. Well, this is progress. Much as I’d hate to be in the same room as Abbott, it’s important that gay lobby groups are able to tell the Leader of the Opposition what our issues are. Thanks to Corey Irlam for undertaking a rather unpleasant task.