Meet your Greens

Meet your Greens

There are now two new Greens in NSW’s Legislative Council.

Lawyer David Shoebridge has replaced long-serving Greens MLC Sylvia Hale, who resigned this month. Cate Faehrmann, a former head of the Nature Conservation Council, now holds the spot vacated by Lee Rhiannon when she retired to stand for the Senate at the federal election.

Shoebridge told Sydney Star Observer he had been given the portfolios of climate change, planning, local government, police, firearms, juvenile justice and Attorney General — including anti-discrimination law, which he said was an issue close to his heart.

“In my bar practice I did a fair amount of discrimination work, particularly for transgendered clients. That’s an area I’d like to see more protections in,” he said.

“A discrimination act, without exemptions for religious schools, religious organisations or otherwise, is a key plank of Greens policy and I’d love to see a bill of rights for NSW.”

Shoebridge said the new MLCs would work to set the tone for the March state election.

“We want the Greens to be part of a growing voice that instils some new confidence in what we can do as a Government. We’re offering a lot of positives for the people of NSW — the roll-out of publicly-owned renewable energy, protecting the rights of minorities, promoting a civil society and giving everyone an equal say.”

Shoebridge said the Greens were expecting a record result in the Legislative Council in March and were confident of breaking into the Lower House as well.

Faehrmann, who takes the portfolios of transport, infrastructure and communities — including GLBTI communities — told Sydney Star Observer she was disappointed she’d not joined Parliament before debate on the same-sex adoption bill.

“I wish I’d been in Parliament a week sooner, but Ian Cohen and John Kaye ably gave their views,” Faehrmann said.

“It’s disappointing that we’re still making concessions for religious groups to continue to discriminate on the basis of sexuality.”

However, she said the Greens understood that exemptions for religious adoption agencies had been necessary for the bill to get through Parliament.

Faehrmann said a priority for her was Government action on homophobic violence, an issue she’s already raised with Premier Kristina Keneally.

“We’re still seeing unacceptable levels of violence and discrimination in the broader community,” Faehrmann said.

“The levels of violence experienced by LGBTI youth at schools is extreme compared to their heterosexual peers.

“I mentioned this in my first meeting with the premier. She wanted to know our priorities and I said this is something I have not seen Government seriously addressing.”

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2 responses to “Meet your Greens”

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  2. If the exemption for religious organisations was removed from the discrimination act, could this hypothetically result in a religious organisations committing an offence under the act for discriminating against the homosexual minority by opposing marriage of same sex couples?