Page 3300 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 22 August 2012
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occasion—how happy the couple were and how proud their family and friends were to be there for the special day. It really was very touching and a special day that everyone present will remember for a long time. And I think the important part of that was the actual public celebration of their love for each other and their commitment to each other.
We live in a society in which rituals and ceremonies are incredibly important to all of us. There are a whole range of those things, whether they are 21st birthdays, wedding ceremonies, hens nights. We have this whole series of ceremonies and rituals in our world that we all find incredibly important and we all love to share with those that are important to us, across all faiths, across cultures, across demographic groups. There are a whole series of them, and all of us know how important those occasions are to us because they are the occasions that we take photos at, they are the occasions that we put those photos on our wall to remember. Denying some couples in our society access to those ceremonies is simply not on and I think that we should be ensuring as many people who want to are able to enjoy those public celebrations and actually celebrate them with their family and loved ones.
The legislation we are passing tonight, and the example I have just described of Warren and Chris, simply highlight the good outcomes that can flow from legislation passed by this place. Reforms like this enrich people’s lives and send a powerful message of respect and of acceptance. It was quite humbling to attend the ceremony of Warren and Chris, and I am filled with pride to know that by voting for this bill today there will be more happy couples sharing their special day with friends and families. I simply affirm that the Greens will be supporting this bill.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development and Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation) (11.03): I thank Mr Rattenbury for another eloquent contribution to this debate and thank the Greens Party for their ongoing support of the government in seeking, step by step, to remove discrimination in ACT law. It has been quite a journey over a 10-year period. I think we are up to over 80 pieces of territory law that have had discriminatory provisions removed.
It is not the first time that we have debated this issue. The very first bill that I voted on as a member of the Assembly was, in fact, the original Civil Unions Bill 2006 that this legislation seeks to finally entrench in territory law.
We have been through the cycle of a Howard government veto, of threat of a Rudd government veto, to, ultimately, a change to Labor’s national platform under the Gillard government and importantly a change to the self-government act that has removed the Howard executive veto, again supported by the Gillard government.
So there has been movement at a national level. Nearly 60 pieces of legislation nationally have sought to remove discrimination for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex Australians, and tonight marks another step of progress. It is not, as Mr Rattenbury said, the end of the road, though, and we certainly will continue this push for legal equality until we achieve that outcome.
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