Reforms ‘just a rumour’, ALP says

Speculation the federal cabinet will consider a proposal to end discrimination in various areas of legislation has been hosed down by Sydney MP Tanya Plibersek as just a rumour.

I wont hold my breath but if John Howard does propose getting rid of discrimination in areas like superannuation, tax, Medicare safety net, of course Labor will support that, Plibersek said.

We’ve already committed to getting rid of the remaining discrimination in Commonwealth legislation -“ if this rumour is true, and it’s a long time coming, the Liberals are playing catch-up with us, not the other way around.

Despite reports in The Australian, the Prime Minister’s office has given no announcement or confirmation regarding the existence of a cabinet submission into removing same-sex discrimination.

The Treasury was asked to cost the proposals, a normal first step for contentious reforms that might impact the Budget, but could provide no timeframe for when that will be completed.

Costings were sought after a request from Liberal backbencher Warren Entsch, who has championed the removal of all legislative discrimination against same-sex and interdependent relationships.

A spokesperson from Entsch’s office confirmed the MP was still in negotiations with the Prime Minister’s office and reiterated that he would like to see the proposals move to cabinet before the end of the year.

He is satisfied with the progress being made, but there are really no developments at this stage, a spokesperson said.

He doesn’t want to run those negotiations in the public arena. You don’t want to back the PM into a corner at this stage of the negotiations, when he’s already giving Warren a good ear.

NSW Greens Senator Kerry Nettle said allowing same-sex couples to legally marry would eliminate most legal discrimination.

The government back benchers pushing for action on equal rights should support The Greens marriage bill which I introduced to parliament last week, she said.