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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 3 Hansard (11 March) . . Page.. 837 ..

of our territory. We are establishing a new definition of domestic partnership and extending a range of rights and responsibilities to gay and lesbian Canberrans.

The major laws that will be amended by the legislation are the Agents Act, the Bail Act, the Coroners Act, the Crimes Act, the Health Records (Privacy and Access) Act, the Land Titles Act, the Mental Health (Treatment and Care) Act, the Powers of Attorney Act, the Victims of Crime (Financial Assistance) Act. Another 28 pieces of legislation will be amended. Having to amend 37 pieces of legislation shows the depth of bigotry, accidental or deliberate, contained in our laws.

This legislation represents an important first step in the law reform process. However, it should not be the end of the process. Even if this legislation is passed today, gay and lesbian people will still face significant legal discrimination, persecution and vilification.

I have seen evidence of this persecution and vilification in some of the correspondence I have received on this legislation. It has disappointed me greatly that some in our community will resort to insults, hate and bigotry in place of reasoned argument on these matters.

I recognise that some members of our community have deeply held religious beliefs on matters of homosexuality. I know that these reforms will cause concern in some quarters, but I honestly believe these concerns are overstated. I cannot see how extending legal rights and responsibilities to gay and lesbian Canberrans will have any detrimental impact on others.

These legislative changes will not end the world as we know it. They are neither anti-family nor anti-marriage. I firmly believe that it is possible to support strong relationships in families without rejecting less traditional relationships and family forms. It is not anti-family to support non-traditional families.

This legislation is about families. It is not just about gays and lesbians. It is also about their mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, children and their friends. All of these people have a stake in these reforms. It is not just the thousands of gay and lesbian Canberrans whose lives will be improved by this legislation. It is the thousands of parents who want their sons and daughters to be able to live happy, productive and healthy lives without having to experience fear, hate, prejudice and discrimination. It is the brothers and sisters who have seen their gay and lesbian siblings struggle with the unfairness of discriminatory laws and who have felt guilty about the unequal treatment that society dishes out.

Every family with gay and lesbian members will benefit in practical and symbolic ways from the passage of this legislation. Overall, the whole community benefits, because this legislation is about fairness and inclusion over exclusion.

One of the urban myths that have been trotted out during this debate is that the legal recognition of lesbian and gay relationships will somehow encourage heterosexuals to choose a same-sex relationship instead. Any thinking Canberran knows that this is rubbish, but we can hope that this legal recognition will prompt many people in same-sex

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