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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 7 Hansard (5 June) . . Page.. 1909 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

Mrs Cross has brought this forward-he sees himself as somehow being the guardian of the Discrimination Act. He may recall the incident in the last Assembly, I think it was-

Mr Stanhope: We are supporting this, Mr Humphries.

MR HUMPHRIES: You are supporting it now? That is great to see.

Mr Stanhope: We are supporting the end result, if the amendments are introduced.

MR HUMPHRIES: I thought you said, a moment ago, you were opposing the bill. Work out what you are going to do, Mr Stanhope, then decide, and come forward in this place and do it. Whatever it is, I am not vacillating. I know my position is going to be to support this legislation.

Mr Stanhope will recall there was a question about the rights of women who were breast-feeding. The then government-I, as the then minister-announced that we were going to legislate to protect against discrimination women who were breast-feeding. Mr Stanhope then made an announcement. He said, "I want to do the same thing. I will bring my bill on first and produce the bill in this place to do just that."

Mr Stanhope: It was already drafted!

MR HUMPHRIES: That is very good to see! However, I did not show the least bit of pique, resentment, bitterness or lack of graciousness in supporting your bill when it came forward. I said, "Yes, I announce my support for this." You happened to have brought your bill forward first. I said, "Good on you, Jon Stanhope!"-and I gave you backing for that.

Mr Stanhope: Garbage. You never said that at all.

MR HUMPHRIES: Have a look at the Hansard, Mr Stanhope, to see exactly what was said, both in public and in the Hansard. I said, "I support this without qualification."

MR SPEAKER: Mr Humphries, if you confine your comments to this particular piece of legislation, we might avoid the cross-chamber discussion.

MR HUMPHRIES: If one has protection from interjection, Mr Speaker, it might be easier to do that. The fact is that, when a similar situation arose before, this had complete and unqualified support from the Liberal Party. It is a pity we cannot see that from the Labor government today.

We know women are discriminated against in these circumstances. Unfortunately, it is often in business situations that this occurs-when women seek access to housing loans, employment or other services where a potential perception may arise that pregnancy in the future will somehow detract from their capacity to fulfil certain legal obligations in business arrangements.

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