FIGHT FOR EQUALITY GOES ON

FIGHT FOR EQUALITY GOES ON

It’s been a month of upheaval for the gay and lesbian community in Australia, of victories and dashed hopes.

First we learnt the Federal Government would indeed honour its pledge to reform the 58 discriminatory laws identified by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission in 2007, and that it would be done in its first year in office. A further 40 or so laws will remain after that, but some of these will be tackled this year as well, with the rest hopefully being dealt with through 2009.

Initially, there had been doubts about the timeframe, with the Government hinting it would delay the changes because they were “too expensive” for its first budget, costing $400 million across four years. That this represented $100 million worth of benefits not received by same sex couples but paid for involuntarily through their taxes did not seem to figure.

A year earlier the Liberals had tried a similar ploy after announcing they’d pass gay reforms somewhere down the track but said they couldn’t do it just then because it would have cost $1 billion – where the extra $600 million disappeared to in the meantime is anyone’s guess, and some suspect the real cost may be even smaller still.

The changes will give same sex couples long-awaited equality in taxation, superannuation, medicare, pharmacutical benefits and work entitlements, at least in the federal arena.

A range of other issues – particularly relating to parenting and exemptions allowing religious groups to discriminate against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people in employment and the provision of services – remain at a state level. The gay community will have to lobby hard alongside their heterosexual friends and allies to see these changed.

This just leaves the contentious issue of how we formally recognise same sex relationships in Australia. At a state and territory level, same sex couples already have de facto status but have much more difficulty proving their relationships to authorities. Until now this has meant bringing in additional documentation or going through costly court proceedings, causing a great deal of stress for couples- particularly in emergency situations where this may not be possible or practical.

This has led to an enormous amount of buck-passing between the states and Feds, with Kevin Rudd last year pledging his opposition to same sex marriage and civil unions to the Australian Christian Lobby while promising the gay community not to intervene in state and territory matters.

Only one of these two promises could be kept, and when Rudd and Attorney General Robert McClelland threatened to repeat Howard’s veto of the ACT’s Civil Unions Bill, it was the promise to the gay community that was shattered.

The ACT will still pass a neutered version of the bill, but there will be no official ceremonies, no couples from outside the ACT, and no reciprocal recognition of other civil unions or same sex marriages from other countries – effectively removing everything about the bill that made it important.

In the meantime, same sex couples have been promised state-based registration schemes – similar to what has existed in Tasmania for years, but watered down. Only Victoria has acted (as it already intended to) and other states have so far refused to come to the table.

Andrew M. Potts is the political columnist at the Sydney Star Observer

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