Dual anti-discrimination promises ahead of poll
The Labor Party has matched the Liberals in committing to introduce federal anti-discrimination legislation protecting people on the grounds of sexuality and gender identity as part of a new unified anti-discrimination act if they are returned to Government.
The commitment was made in a statement sent to the Australian Coalition for Equality.
“The Gillard Labor Government supports the enactment of legislation prohibiting discrimination on the basis of a person’s sexual orientation or gender status, and the removal of such discrimination from Commonwealth legislation,” the statement reads.
“As part of Australia’s Human Rights Framework, Federal Labor is committed to combining federal anti-discrimination laws into a single Act … As part of this, Federal Labor will include protections against discrimination on the basis of a person’s sexual orientation or gender status.
“All States and Territories currently include sexual orientation and gender status as a grounds for discrimination, with various levels of protections … The Government will undertake consultation with stakeholders, including States and Territories, on the proposed single anti‑discrimination law.”
Last week on Melbourne’s JOY 94.9 FM, Shadow Attorney-General George Brandis told broadcaster Doug Pollard that an elected Coalition would introduce anti-discrimination law — and that this would be likely to occur in its first term in office.
“The Coalition believes that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation should be included among the categories of discrimination in federal legislation,” Brandis said.
“I would fully expect it to be in our first term. It’s something I feel very strongly about.”
Brandis then reminded listeners of the “in principle” support for federal anti-discrimination protection based on sexual orientation that Liberal leader Tony Abbott had given on JOY in March.
Australian Coalition for Equality’s Corey Irlam said that with the Greens also supporting anti-discrimination protection for GLBTI people it was highly likely reform would occur within the next two years.
“Its fantastic to see, after 15 years of discussion and lobbying over this issue, that all the key parties in the federal Parliament finally recognise this important piece of legislation needs to be introduced,” Irlam said.
“By all three parties supporting the principle of this legislation, it is highly likely it will be introduced and hopefully passed within the next two years. ACE provided a model bill for what we would like to see in the legislation in 2009. We look forward to reviewing any actual legislation introduced into Parliament.”
However, Prime Minister Julia Gillard reiterated her opposition to same-sex marriage on ABC’s Q&A program on Monday night.
“I understand there’s a variety of community views on same-sex marriage and I suspect what I am going to say now is going to disappoint you but I am going to … tell you the truth,” Gillard said.
“The truth is my position [and] the position of the Government which we worked out at our national conference, is that the Labor Party believe that the Marriage Act should stay in the same way as it is now, so that marriage should be defined as a man and a woman.”
Also not forgetting this:
Both the Marriage Act 1961 and the Family Law Act 1975
Interpretation section:
Omit – “a union between a man and a woman”.
Replace with – “a voluntary union between any two (2) adult persons”.
Section 88EA:
Omit – “not”; [after must].
First of all what actually needs to happen is this:
(a) Omit 3 references to “de facto spouse” in the Sex Discrimination Act 1984, and replace those 3 references to “de facto or registered partner” and add – “breastfeeding”.
(b) Consolidate all 4 pieces of Commonwealth legislation (namely the Sex Discrimination Act 1984; Age Discrimination Act 2004; Disability Discrimination Act 1991 and the Racial Discrimination Act 1982) into one body called the “Equality Bill” – as the UK have recently done and been very successful!
(c) In the Equality Bill – add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity”
(d) I recommend that the Equality bill gets passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate in the Australian Parliament and gets “assented” into law – to be called the Equality Act!
(e) The Fair Work Act 2009 needs to be amended. Omit all references to “sexual preference”, and replace all those references to “sexual orientation”.
Gender Identity needs to cover ALL gender identities including Bi-Gender. It must protect Gender Expression explicitly and not just by implication. Otherwise effeminate Gays, masculine lesbians, crossdressers, genderqueers, drag and more all can still be discriminated against for their Gender Expression.
Intersex must also be quite explicitly included!
And any religious exemption should only cover their direct temples/churches. Not pharmacies, not shops, not GPs clinics. And i know schools are contentious but thats just darn tough! Cause some of those kids at any school at all will turn out to be GLBTI and so no, no school exemption exemption is ok. All schools should have anti-discrimination including GLBTI as an essential non-optional part of the curiculum. Let them do what they want inside their churches/temples etc but in all business charity and public service they should not discriminate!
Oh, come off it. Surely anti-discrimination legislation would stop Labor and Liberal from defining marriage as “between a man and a woman.” And how many other exemptions do you think they might include, as they have done in NSW, and refuse to remove. What’s the point in having anti-discrimination laws if they don’t apply to everyone and everything? Why isn’t SSO asking these questions?