Page 371 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 14 February 2017
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All of us deserve to be recognised equally, and the love of two people regardless of their gender deserves to be respected and celebrated regardless of what the two people’s sexuality is. I was recently married. I recognise that people really may want to get married. I of course did not have the challenge of trying to work out whether my marriage would be recognised. There was automatic, legal acceptance of our union and I did not have to worry about whether my relationship would be respected and honoured for what it was: a union of two people who love each other and have committed to live their lives together.
The Greens believe that freedom of sexual orientation and gender identity are fundamental human rights. We understand that acceptance, celebration and representation of diversity are essential for genuine social justice and equality and we believe in a Canberra that recognises and celebrates diversity.
When you think about it, this amendment is really a straightforward law expressing something which should be clear already and I think is clear already to this Assembly. It simply says that love is love and that a public and formal commitment of love is something that cannot and should not be restrained.
It was 20 years ago that former Greens leader Bob Brown became the first openly gay member of the parliament of Australia. In 1997 the Greens leader in Tasmania, Christine Milne, achieved reform to decriminalise homosexuality in Tasmania. Greens senators such as Kerry Nettle and Sarah Hanson-Young and MP Adam Bandt have worked tirelessly to introduce legislation in the federal parliament to try to achieve marriage equality.
The Australian Greens have consistently supported same-sex marriage and have sought to legislate in support of this position in both the 42nd and 43rd parliaments, and continue, of course, to do so today. The Greens led the vote against the plebiscite that the federal Liberal government was so keen to have and we have led attempts at reform in the state and territory parliaments around the country.
Canberra is a vibrant, diverse and progressive community. We were the first place in the country to end marriage discrimination under the law. It is shameful that our same-sex marriage act was found unlawful and that the 31 marriages that occurred in that very small window were all annulled—and one of my staff was one of the people involved in this, so this is a matter particularly dear to my heart—but at least we do have the Civil Unions Act, which allows couples of any gender to register their relationship. That is at least one positive thing that the ACT has been allowed to do.
While this amendment opens up the opportunity for more members of our community to have their relationships formally recognised it is still not marriage. It is good but it is not good enough. It is as progressive as we can be in the territory but it is not progressive enough when right around the world marriage equality is becoming a reality for LGBTIQ couples.
Nationally, we have an exciting opportunity to put marriage equality in place. But of course we need to work together. With the support of the majority of Australians, the
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