Page 5742 - Week 15 - Thursday, 10 December 2009
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acknowledge the significant advances that have been achieved in the ACT in relation to the removal of discrimination against gay and lesbian people within Canberra and essentially to congratulate those people within the government and within the ACT public service that have worked so diligently, over eight years now, on a major reform program that at one level, or to some extent perhaps, is represented today in what may be, at least for some time, the final tranche of reform in the ACT in relation to a program that was commenced eight years ago at a time when ACT legislation at a whole range of levels contained provisions that on their face and in their effect discriminated against people within the ACT on the basis of their sexuality and the nature of their relationships.
It has been an eight-year reform program which has been driven by this government, initially commenced by me as attorney, with work that has been carried on diligently by Simon Corbell as Attorney-General, with significant support by all members of the successive Labor governments since 2001—and in recent years a program of reform that has been driven by Simon Corbell and Andrew Barr.
It is a matter of enormous pride for the Labor Party and for this government, for the parliamentary Labor Party and for the broader Labor Party membership, that we as a government and as a branch of the Labor Party in Australia have led the nation in our determination to ensure that all Canberrans are treated without discrimination and that all relationships, whether they be relationships of homosexual couples or heterosexual couples, are accorded the same respect and the same recognition.
While today there is a perhaps a tinge of regret that we are supporting an amendment that takes one step back, we should not detract from the fact that the achievement of this Assembly, and the achievement in recent times achieved by the leadership and support shown by the ACT Greens, does represent an enormous step forward in the recognition of gay and lesbian relationships in Canberra, and indeed in Australia. I do support and endorse it.
We should look at the positives in relation to what has been achieved rather than reflecting on some of the negatives, and this particular negative around a step back that each of us within the Labor Party and the Greens would have preferred not to have been a part of or not required to be associated with. Rather than dwell or focus on that, as Andrew Barr has just said in his concluding remarks, we should recognise that a new benchmark has been established here in the ACT. It is a benchmark that has been endorsed or supported by the national government of Australia. It is now, I believe, with the legitimacy, if I could call it that, afforded to the legislative framework that has been developed here in the ACT, a legislative framework of recognition of gay and lesbian relationships that is endorsed by the national government of Australia.
That is a most significant step forward and advance in Australia on this issue. It is something that we can all be proud of here in the ACT Legislative Assembly. We have, through our determination, led to a position where our national government, the government of Australia, has now endorsed a level and a degree of a legislative framework that is—certainly in terms of where we have come in the last few years—very progressive. It should be supported and applauded and is now certainly a standard or a level of respect that is accorded in this jurisdiction, supported by our
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