OPINION
Meeka Smith is Chairperson of Busselton Pride Alliance.
As the chairperson of a regional pride group in Western Australia, I have to say the recently launched 10-year LGBTIQA+ Inclusion Strategy is a deep disappointment.
More than one in four LGBTIQA+ people in this state live outside Perth. Yet the Strategy makes no specific mention of regional needs. For a document intended to guide inclusion for the next decade, that omission is not minor; it’s structural.
Law Reform – Foundational but absent
The Strategy contains no new law reform commitments, and no concrete commitment beyond the vagueness of what has already been repeatedly promised, but not delivered.
There is no commitment to remove religious exemptions allowing discrimination in education and faith-based services. (This includes schools, employment services, age care, disability resources, charities and crisis accommodation).
There is no reference to hate crimes or vilification protections.
There is no mention of intersex human rights protections.
There is no commitment to ban conversion practices.
Law reform is foundational to all other inclusion work. Excluding it from an Inclusion Strategy is both ironic and inexcusable. If discrimination remains lawful, inclusion efforts remain superficial.
By contrast, the recently released Inclusion LGBTIQA+ Strategy by the Tasmanian Liberal Government commits to law reform, and banning conversion practices in particular (page: 20).
Regions Ignored
Regional communities engaged in strategy consultation in good faith. Health, law reform, procurement standards and regional capacity-building were raised, yet the final Strategy and Action Plan do not reflect those priorities.
In most regional towns, there are no specialist LGBTIQA+ services at all, including no dedicated mental health supports and no gender-affirming clinicians. This leaves regional people to travel hundreds of kilometres to Perth at significant financial, physical and emotional cost, or to simply go without care altogether.
Regional communities also face major gaps in social housing and legal infrastructure, which are even more pronounced for LGBTIQA+ people, particularly trans and gender-diverse people. Access to legal support and advocacy services is limited, making it difficult for us to safely report discrimination or navigate complex systems without fear of social, economic or personal repercussions.
Without commitments to key LGBTIQA+ issues in the regions, this Strategy risks being symbolic rather than structural. It becomes more about managing us rather than transforming society.
Health – the primary community priority
Health was the dominant theme in consultation submissions across the state. Yet the Strategy contains almost no concrete reforms.
The health-related items included in the Action Plan – mapping inclusive services and progressing Rainbow Tick accreditation – were already commitments under the WA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex Health Strategy (2019–2024). That strategy lacked binding commitments, dedicated funding, and accountability mechanisms, and subsequently was not implemented across regional health services.
Now, rather than implementing enforceable reforms arising from the extensive community consultations, the Department of Health is tasked with developing yet another WA Health Delivery Plan. Another plan simply delays action further. It risks delivering another ineffective plan.
In regional WA, these gaps are not theoretical.
In Albany, for example, LGBTIQA+ people must navigate an overstretched health system where a prominent GP has publicly associated LGBTIQA+ people with paedophilia.
In the south west, essential cancer treatments are only available through a religiously-run hospital. This is the same for other state funded services including the Community Alcohol and Drug Service and Suicide Prevention service.
When public services are contracted to faith-based providers without binding inclusion requirements, vulnerable LGBTIQA+ patients have no choice. Uncertainty about institutional policies and attitudes can directly shape whether we seek care at all.
It is inexcusable that public money can fund services without enforceable LGBTIQA+ inclusion standards, particularly in regional areas where alternate providers do not exist.
This also applies to many other service delivery areas including homelessness, aged care, and disability.
Community Capacity
There was a missed opportunity here to strengthen the local LGBTIQA+ sector through direct funding. Many regional pride groups are already operating at full capacity, run entirely by volunteers who are stretched thin and filling gaps as volunteers.
At the same time as providing peer support, running events and delivering community education, these volunteers are fighting entrenched discrimination, vilification, and increased hostility from opponents, which can include elected members.
The Fix Required
While the LGBTIQA+ community had some input into the Inclusion Strategy, the Action Plan is wholly government-derived with no input from the community. Despite many community recommendations, very few were included in it.
An Inclusion Strategy cannot succeed unless it is shaped and implemented in partnership with the community it affects.
The current Strategy requires urgent review and amendment to embed enforceable health reforms with funding and accountability, introduce procurement and contracting standards tied to inclusion, commit to specific law reforms with timelines, and deliver targeted regional investment and capacity-building restore comprehensive Inclusive Education initiatives.
Inclusion cannot be symbolic. It must be structural.
For LGBTIQA+ people living in regional Western Australia, this is not abstract policy. It is about whether we can access safe healthcare, whether discrimination remains lawful, and whether our communities are properly resourced to survive and thrive.
A 10-year Inclusion Strategy must begin with legal equality and enforceable standards. Without that foundation it risks being remembered only as a missed opportunity, and not a transformative blue-print for legal improvements and health care benchmarks.
