Lobby yet to test new AG

Parenting rights will be the first gay and lesbian issue to head across the desk of newly appointed state attorney-general John Hatzistergos.

Spokesperson for the Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby (GLRL), Ghassan Kassisieh, has confirmed the Lobby will request a meeting with the new attorney-general, who replaced Bob Debus in premier Morris Iemma’s post-election reshuffle.

However, Kassisieh told Sydney Star Observer, the new attorney-general’s enthusiasm for gay law reform had not been tested.

It’s still not clear where [Hatzistergos] stands in comparison to Bob Debus, he said.

Debus was a big supporter of the community and a fantastic attorney-general. At the age of consent debate he wasn’t actually present so we can’t even see his record. We’re pretty blind.

The Lobby will push for changes to the 1996 Status of Children Act. In particular they will be focusing on gaining parenting rights for same-sex couples.

At the moment non-biological parents of a child born through donor insemination have no legal relationship to a child they may have raised from the day they were born, Kassisieh said.

Other Australian states had laws to protect non-biological parents in same-sex relationships, he said.

The Lobby also planned to approach the new attorney-general about the state’s adoption laws.

However, stressed Kassisieh, Labor has told the GLRL the party would not consider any change to adoption laws until a review of the Status of Children Act came out in July, and even then their position is unlikely to alter.

Kassisieh broadly welcomed the new make-up of the ALP government in the wake of the election, which saw a number of supporters of the gay and lesbian community elected or re-elected.