Page 3489 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 22 October 2014

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video

their options are next year. That is what I find completely unacceptable. Joy Burch, as the minister in this instance, has simply failed to provide, in what the community would expect to be a reasonable time frame, details as to what the options are.

To that end I, like the rest of the families and service providers that are out there looking at what the options are, will continue to hold my breath, continue to wait and see what the options are and wait and see what results this minister can produce. The fact that the commonwealth is now in charge of the remainder of this transition is probably a good thing. It is testament to the commonwealth. I think it is in safe hands. Senator Fifield, overseeing the agency, is doing a sensational job. The competence and aptitude that he brings to the portfolio space are something that this minister should be very enviable of.

Amendment agreed to.

Motion, as amended, agreed to.

Marriage equality

MS BERRY (Ginninderra) (4.45): I move:

That this Assembly:

(1) notes:

(a) that today marks one year since the Marriage Equality Bill 2013 was passed by this Assembly;

(b) the ACT was the first jurisdiction to pass legislation enabling recognition of same-sex marriage in Australia;

(c) that marriage equality exists in 17 countries including New Zealand along with 30 states of the USA and several cities and provinces of Mexico;

(d) that recent polling shows up to 72% of Australians support marriage equality; and

(e) in the last federal census it was revealed that the ACT has the highest proportion of same-sex couples of any jurisdiction in Australia; and

(2) calls on the ACT Government to:

(a) continue to voice its support for changes to the Federal Marriage Act and advocate for changes to the Marriage Act 1961;

(b) continue to provide support services for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and questioning (LGBTIQ) people, in particular LGBTIQ youth; and

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video