Page 2639 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 10 August 2016
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ill-informed comments, hostility and division across our community and across our country. It has the very real potential to harm individuals and could be particularly damaging for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members of our community in particular.
Whilst I am confident that the ACT is a progressive and supportive community that has shown a maturity when it comes to the issue of marriage equality, I am very conscious of wanting to continue to be part of a community that does not support negative commentary which makes already vulnerable people feel that they may be unsupported by those around them. A plebiscite is by no means the optimum way to address the issue of marriage equality. Rather, it could be considered a stalling tactic to inevitable reform.
The ACT continues to be the most welcoming city in Australia for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people. We are committed to providing support and services to Canberra’s LGBTIQ community as part of our broader social inclusion and equity agenda. We are committed to ensuring that all Canberrans have the ability to express their love and commitment in the eyes of the law. We are committed to ensuring that all individuals in our community feel valued and accepted and that they are engaged and able to contribute without having their gender, sexual preference or orientation form any part of public opinion or dialogue about how they are included in our community.
We have a strong record in supporting marriage equality and we will continue this record, even if the federal government persists with its plans for a plebiscite. We will continue to champion for those in our community who may not feel they have a voice, or who are still deciding what that voice is. We will do all we can to make certain that there is no place for words or actions that create a divide or encourage negative speech.
This ACT Labor government will continue to make it known that we support and are ready for marriage equality in our city and in this country. We were ready three years ago. We were ready even before then. The ACT has an excellent track record in supporting our LGBTIQ communities. We have done this through a number of legislative changes, including recognising same-sex relationships through the domestic partnerships act in 1994 and commencing law reform processes to clear our statute books of discrimination against the LGBTIQ community regarding property rights, adoption laws and so on. We have passed laws that updated the definition of “intersex” in the ACT, including removing the requisite of reassignment surgery for a person to change their legal status.
In November 2013 in this place we passed the Marriage Equality (Same Sex) Act 2013. We knew then that we were on the right side of history. This was landmark law reform. In the short period before the federal government intervened, 31 marriages were registered under the act between its commencement and when the High Court found the act invalid in December. Three years later it is extremely disappointing that, rather than celebrating wedding anniversaries, we are here again in this place defending what many in our community and our country know is right for the federal parliament and parliaments across this country to do, and that is to recognise same-sex marriage and marriage equality and have that right enshrined in legislation.
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