Page 1633 - Week 05 - Thursday, 11 May 2006
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women exercising their reproductive right to have a medical or surgical abortion. They seem to object to the Greens, full stop—
Mr Hargreaves: Well, I can understand that bit. We all understand that bit.
DR FOSKEY: as we saw from the Exclusive Brethren’s campaign in Tasmania.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Leave the Greens alone.
DR FOSKEY: Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. The Liberal Party have an agenda that they are protecting which is about a particular view of sexuality, a particular view of the place of women and a real concern about any group, like the Greens, that is strong enough to stand up and defend those things.
We should not feel beaten—indeed we do not—simply because these amendments have to be made. As we continue to fight the long-term fight for equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex people and their right to the relationship that they choose, we should be proud of what we have achieved. This is a fight that will have to continue at the federal level, and I hope that the ACT Labor Party lobbies its state and federal counterparts for such a move. The Greens are already up there proposing these ideas and I am sure that our senators would be happy to work with the Labor Party if they decided to join them.
Amendment agreed to.
Clause 5, as amended, agreed to.
Clauses 6 to 8, by leave, taken together and agreed to.
Clause 9.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister for Planning) (9.22): I seek leave to move amendments Nos 2 to 4 circulated in my name together.
Leave granted.
MR CORBELL: I move amendments Nos 2 to 4 circulated in my name together [see schedule 3 at page 1667].
Amendments Nos 2 and 4 replace references to “authorised celebrant” with the words “civil union celebrant”. The amendments are made as a consequence of the inclusion of new part 2A in the bill, which provides a separate ACT registration scheme for civil union celebrants, rather than using authorised celebrants under the commonwealth Marriage Act. This change has been made to address the concerns of the commonwealth regarding the use of marriage celebrants to perform functions under the ACT civil unions legislation.
The commonwealth indicated concerns that this may create confusion over the distinction between marriage and civil unions. This is a level of confusion the
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