Coalition to introduce anti-discrimination laws

Coalition to introduce anti-discrimination laws

Federal Shadow Attorney-General George Brandis says if the Coalition is elected on August 21 it will introduce legislation to include sexual orientation and gender identity in federal anti-discrimination laws.

Speaking to Doug Pollard on Melbourne GLBTI radio station JOY94.9 this morning, Brandis said it was likely the change would occur in their first term of government.

“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’m going to stop short of making a commitment to it being in the first term only because you can never say what the legislative agenda will be.

“[But] I would fully expect it to be in our first term, it’s something I feel very strongly about and I think when Tony [Abbott] was on your show recently, I’ve reviewed the transcript of what he said, I don’t think he could be more unequivocal about what he said about it, so that’s a yes.”

In an interview with JOY in March this year, Opposition leader Tony Abbott said he would give “in principle” support to federal anti-discrimination legislation if it was “good law”.

Brandis reiterated the Coalition’s opposition to same-sex marriage and said recommendations made in the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Sex Files report on transgender issues would be “consider[ed] carefully”.

You May Also Like

2 responses to “Coalition to introduce anti-discrimination laws”

  1. This is a huge leap forward and more then Labor is offering. Labor is offering 4years of doing no law reform for the GLBTQI community.

    I do however have a great concern. Shadow Attorney -General George Brandis said Church companies that own businesses would still be able to discriminate against people on the basis of sexuality. If a Church runs the only pharmacy or medical clinic in a country town, they will be legally entitled to let people die on the basis of their sexuality and not provide life saving treatment. Brandis said it was not Liberal Party policy to change this.

    Church companies receive huge tax breaks, and do not pay rates. Often they also receive direct funding from the Federal Government in addition to all this.

    On Same-Sex Marriage Brandis took the cowards way out being stripped of moral and religious arguments, the only excuse for the homophobia was he said the community did not support Same-Sex Marriage. This is despite polls that show well over half the population supports Same-Sex Marriage. These same polls are the ones the Liberal Party uses to knife leaders as they believe the polls represent public opinion. Given this one can only describe the policy of exclusion as homophobic.