Page 688 - Week 02 - Thursday, 20 March 2014
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The opposition too will be monitoring the operation of this legislation closely and will continue to engage with stakeholders to discuss these issues, and I look forward to meeting with them as this legislation rolls out, as we understand the implications of it and, essentially, as the rubber hits the road and we see people start to take advantage of the opportunities that are afforded by this legislation. As I said, we will be supporting this legislation.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ms Lawder): Before you start, Mr Rattenbury, I would like to add my welcome to those in the public gallery. But can I remind you that the taking of photographs is prohibited in the public gallery. Therefore, by extension, publishing them, including on social media, is also prohibited.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (5.52): On behalf of the ACT Greens, I am very pleased to support these changes to the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act and to remove discrimination towards gender diverse people in the ACT and ensure that they are treated with dignity before the law. Advocates from the gender diverse community have described these as pioneering reforms. I hope that they will be adopted in other jurisdictions. I hope that they help pave the way for further progress and reforms to ensure that gender diverse people are treated equally and with respect.
As pleased as I am to support the bill today, I want to point out that we should not actually need to be standing up here advocating for equality and respect for gender diverse Australians and we should not have to be celebrating a law that treats people equally. It should go without saying that people of different gender identities and different sexualities should be treated just the same as anyone else. It should be a perfectly mundane issue, an innate quality in our society which we hardly need to give a second thought to. Unfortunately, that is not yet the case. And so we continue to need advocates like those who are attending in the chamber today. And we will continue to need policy and political pioneers to implement changes that will advance this cause.
I put on the record, as I have done before, that the Greens are very supportive of these types of reforms. It is a fundamental principle at the policy heart of the Greens. The Greens believe that freedom of sexual orientation and gender identity are fundamental human rights and that people have the right to assume their self-identified gender. Discrimination on the basis of sexuality or gender identity is unacceptable. I look forward to continued work with advocates from the gender diverse community so that I can continue to play my part in assisting to achieve full recognition, equality and an end to discrimination.
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